MassResistance equates homosexuality with pedophilia and calls Obergefell “illegimate”. In February, North Dakota became the latest of at least nine states that have introduced legislation petitioning the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark decision granting marriage equality across the United States. Legislation in at least five of those states is nearly identical, the result of an orchestrated campaign by MassResistance, an anti-LGBTQ+ organization designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Massachusetts, where the group is based, was the first state to recognize same-sex marriage, in 2004. The North Dakota measure, which is non-binding and would have no legal sway over the Supreme Court, states that the Legislature “rejects” the 2015 Obergefell ruling and urges the high court “to overturn the decision and leave unaddressed the natural definition of marriage as a union between one man, a biological male, and one woman, a biological female.” Nearly identical resolutions to reverse Obergefell have been introduced in Idaho, Michigan, Montana, and South Dakota. The hate group isn’t making any secret of their role in the anti-marriage equality campaign. “MassResistance has drafted text for state legislature resolutions that call on the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse its infamous and illegitimate Obergefell ruling,” the group announces on its website, boasting, “More states to come!” The organization has a long history attacking LGBTQ+ rights since it coalesced around the marriage equality fight in the early 2000s. Founder Brian Camenker has equated homosexuality with bestiality and polygamy; denied gay men died in the Holocaust; denounced Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for declaring Pride Month at the State Department; claimed crime against gay people is caused by “revulsion”; promoted conversion therapy; claimed the FBI and CIA are under queer control; and asserted that there are few elite gay athletes because “homosexual lifestyle.”
via lgbtqnation: As the threat to marriage equality rises, a hate group comes under scrutiny
