In response to the new DOMA brief filed today by the DOJ, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) issued a press release asking Obama to live up to his pre-election promises while trumpeting their growing list of bigots… I mean membership.

“In a high-profile interview with Rick Warren, Barack Obama convinced millions of Americans he opposed gay marriage; we are calling on the President to live up to his campaign commitment” said Brian Brown [NOM Executive Director].

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) announces today that their 2 Million for Marriage campaign now has topped 500,000 active supporters, part of a planned expansion of its activist base in preparation for fighting to prevent President Obama from overturning DOMA.

“NOM’s activist base is exploding, increasing tenfold in the first five months of this year,” said Brian Brown, “We’ve moved from 50,000 to more than 500,000 Americans pledging to protect DOMA.”

NOM’s goal for 2009 is to build an army of 2 million Americans willing to fight against efforts to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. “At this rapid rate of growth, we will meet or exceed our ambitious goals by the end of 2009,” notes Brown.

“The National Organization for Marriage has emerged as the nation’s only major national grassroots organization dedicated to protecting marriage,” notes Maggie Gallagher, president and founder of NOM. “DOMA is the only federal law that protects marriage as the union of husband and wife, and guarantees voters in Georgia or Wisconsin that a handful of judges in Massachusetts will not be able to impose gay marriage on their state.”

Senator Claire McCaskill suggested yesterday if a concealed weapons law she had voted against had actually passed, it could have set a precedent for forcing states, like her home state of Missouri, to recognize another state’s gay marriage laws.

Sen. McCaskill says she was not against letting people carry concealed weapons. But she is against requiring one state to accept another state’s laws that might differ from its own. She says it would be a foot in the door that could allow Vermont’s laws on gay marriage to be enforced in Missouri, which has a constitutional provision against gay marriage.

McCaskill says many of the supporters of the proposal are advocates for states’ rights, but they want to override states’ rights on carrying concealed weapons.

McCaskill audio available here:

[audio:http://www.missourinet.com/podcast/feed/a6afff9d-c09f-1e1c-6be13276f8998390/article/a39175b5-5056-b82a-37fd2022b5878c0c/audio/a451587c-5056-b82a-37678da2082718e8/macgun.mp3]

Senator McCaskill has since attempted to clarify her position via email.
(via Pam’s House Blend)

“In talking about my recent vote against the gun provision offered in the Senate, I wasn’t clear when I stated that my vote against that provision was because it came down to a states’ rights. I was expressing my frustration in that some who argue that states shouldn’t respect the laws, certificates, or permits from other states when it’s convenient, like with gay marriage, but then argue that they should when it’s convenient on another issue, like gun rights. They can’t have it both ways,” McCaskill said.

While it is true that Republicans are demonstrating hypocrisy with regards to state’s rights on this issue, based on McCaskill’s original statement, it really sounds like she thinks DOMA is a “good” idea.

PROMO, The Missouri LGBT advocacy group has responded to McCaskill’s comments today:

In a statement defending her opposition to this bill, she [McCaskill] stated: “This is a foot in the door that would require, for example, the laws in Vermont on gay marriage to be enforced in Missouri.”

This is a problem. A state’s rights argument is valid in this situation, however it is inconceivable that an ally can support Hate Crimes legislation- which recognizes the LGBT community is a target of increased abuse, intolerance and aggressive force- but uses a touchstone issue for the community as a shield rather than stand alone on an anti-gun sentiment.

In a time when we have seen incredible strides on a state by state basis, we have turned a corner and will not tolerate being used as a shield. Please reach out to Sen. McCaskill’s office and let her know while she is an ally, you won’t tolerate being used as a shield. The numbers listed are below for local and DC offices.

Gay Republicans have also expressed particular outrage over McCaskill’s comments, an outrage likely fueled more by the fact that McCaskill is a Democrat and their strong support of the concealed weapons law, than anything about gay marriage.

Pastor Bill Devlin, president of Redeem the Vote, a non-profit that engages youth through faith, presented the same tired and alarmist arguments against a new gay marriage bill in a “trainwreck” of an appearance on Good Morning Philadelphia yesterday. State Sen. Daylin Leach who introduced the lesislation, was on hand to defend the bill with sound, unlike Pastor Devlin. Watch:

Massachusetts, the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, is now the first state to challenge the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal court. The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley, claims that DOMA “violates the United States Constitution by interfering with the Commonwealth’s sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents.”

“In enacting DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act], Congress overstepped its authority, undermined states’ efforts to recognize marriages between same-sex couples, and codified an animus towards gay and lesbian people,” the state said in a lawsuit filed today in US District Court in Massachusetts.

The suit said that more than 16,000 same-sex couples have married in Massachusetts since gay marriage became legal in the state in 2004 “and the security and stability of families has been strengthened in important ways throughout the state.”

“Despite these developments, same-sex couples in Massachusetts are still denied essential rights and protections because the federal Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] interferes with the Commonwealth’s authority to define and regulate marriage,” the lawsuit said.

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