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Tell National Organization for Marriage to Apologize for Equating Same-Sex Marriage with Slavery
  1. Signatures
    160 out of 1,000
    Petitioning
    1. Executive Director, National Organization for Marriage (Brian Brown)
  2. Created By
    Amanda Kloer
    Washington, DC
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) have been the primary opponents of state-level marriage equality legislation, including Proposition 8 in California and Question 1 in Maine. And this summer, they've been on tour denouncing same-sex marriage around the country. According spokesman Brian Brown on Twitter,

“It is 1972 for marriage. This is the same as the time as before Roe v. Wade. . . . What if William Wilberforce listened to those telling him not to bring his religion into the public square?"

William Wilberforce was a British Member of Parliment in the 19th century who was almost single-handedly responsible for ending slavery in the British empire, and is today lauded as one of the most famous abolitionists in the world. He was also a devout Christian, which is the religion Brown references. But by comparing Wilberforce's public campaign against slavery to NOM's public campaign against marriage equality, they are equating the systematic sale and enslavement of an entire continent of people with the extension of the right to marry whom they choose to all Americans.

This comparison is offensive on more levels than a video game convention in a skyscraper has. It's offensive to LGBT people and marriage equality advocates because it equates them with slave traders. It's offensive to modern-day abolitionists and human rights adovacates, because it belittles the horrific abuses they fight by equating them with a generally positive social instiution. And it's offensive to people who think and use common sense, because same-sex marriage is no more comparable to the slave trade than apples are to a Ford Pinto or outerspace.

Recent Signatures

Apologize for Equating Same-Sex Marriage with Slavery

Greetings Mr. Brown,

As a modern-day abolitionist and a person deeply dedicated to ending human trafficking and modern-day slavery, your recent Twitter message comparing same-sex marriage to slavery deeply offended me. As you said in your tweet,

“It is 1972 for marriage. This is the same as the time as before Roe v. Wade. . . . What if William Wilberforce listened to those telling him not to bring his religion into the public square?"

By comparing Wilberforce's public campaign against slavery to NOM's public campaign against same-sex marriage, you are equating the systematic sale and enslavement of an entire continent of people with the extension of the legal right to marry the person of their choice to all Americans.

This comparison is offensive and ridiculous. It is offensive to the thousands of Christian people and churches around the world who have made significant sacrifices to work to end slavery and human trafficking in the past two centuries. It belittles the horrific abuses of human trafficking and slavery by equating them with a generally positive, wholesome, and affirming social institution such as marriage. And it seriously undermines your arguments and your organization to make such a logically inconsistent statement.

Please issue an immediate public apology which retracts your comparison of same-sex marriage to the slave trade and affirms that the two institutions are utterly different and unrelated.

Regards,

[Your name]

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