FROM: AllianceForMarriage.net [info@allianceformarriage.net] DATE: Monday 11/20/06 SUBJECT: Our Two Year Plan Dear ***** I'm writing to you to give you a confidential overview of AFM's plans to advance our cause of strengthening and protecting marriage in America over the next two years. As I've said for many years, the historic struggle to protect marriage in America for future generations is one that will not be decided within the framework of a single election cycle. On the contrary, we are engaged in a struggle that will be played out over a decade or more. This has been true of every defining social debate in history. And we can no more afford the error of short-term thinking than the abolitionists of a century earlier in England and America. Our opposition is engaged in a long-term effort to destroy marriage through the courts. In so doing, they will deeply advance the social damage of family disintegration in our society. They will also set the stage for the persecution of every community in America whose beliefs on the subject of marriage they deem to be a form of hatred and bigotry. Given the reality of this threat, we cannot afford to have any less of a long-term perspective. The stakes are simply too high for our families, our children and our grandchildren. Now where do we go from here? STATUS REPORT There are now two major trends affecting the marriage cause that are on a collision course: ACCELERATION OF THE LEGAL ATTACKS ON MARRIAGE For over a decade, radical activists have been suing in courts across America to strike down marriage. Those lawsuits continue - in states all across the country - to this day. For a time, it appeared that the courts might be backing away from their tendency to follow elite opinion within the legal profession and strike down marriage against the popular will. But the recent New Jersey decision changed all that. We have now seen another state court follow in the footsteps of Massachusetts. Although the public backlash against the Massachusetts decision has forced the New Jersey courts to be more subtle in their approach, the substance of the New Jersey decision is the same as the famous 5-4 decision from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declaring marriage to be a codification of hatred and prejudice. It is safe to predict that the trend in the courts will continue in the direction of Massachusetts and New Jersey. Radical activist groups will probably be emboldened to move even more quickly in the courts believing that Congress will not act to stop them over the next two years. VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICANS CONTINUE TO SUPPORT MARRIAGE The good news is that marriage was again the biggest winner with the American people in the last election. Indeed, the outcome with respect to marriage referenda across the country was the opposite of the situation in Congress. America is still strongly in favor of our laws sending a positive message to kids about marriage, family and their future. In fact, voters in seven out of eight states approved state marriage amendments with support rising high above the political 'wave' that so significantly reordered the political landscape. Voters in Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia and Wisconsin, overwhelmingly approved state marriage amendments on the ballot. Twenty seven states have now approved marriage amendments to their constitution protecting marriage as a man and woman. This brings to forty-five the total number of states with either statutory or constitutional protections for marriage. The sole defeat of a marriage amendment on election night was in Arizona, where the state marriage campaign was unwisely focused on benefits issues rather than marriage. As research has shown for a decade, this approach always reduces the margin of support for marriage amendments because it allows opponents to change the debate from marriage to other issues. Notwithstanding, when voters are given a clear vote to protect the commonsense definition of marriage as a man and a woman, they do so overwhelmingly in even the "bluest of blue states." For example, a state marriage amendment - clearly focused on the protection of marriage - was passed in Oregon in spite of the fact that opponents vastly outspent supporters. AFM STRATEGY AFM has always worked to build a coalition in support of our cause that transcends party and partisan politics. Indeed, the first sponsor of our Marriage Amendment in the Congress was a Democrat. In the future, we plan to work with the many cosponsors of our amendment - in both parties - to make the case for our cause in light of the ongoing pattern of court decisions in Massachusetts, New Jersey and elsewhere across the country. Meanwhile, we intend to pursue the following strategies to build momentum for our cause where our strength is greatest - among voters in states all across the country who continue to vote with their feet to protect marriage for their children and grandchildren. All of these strategies are designed to continue to build pressure on Congress for our cause and lay the foundation for the Marriage Protection Amendment to be taken to the states as ongoing lawsuits continue to force the issue of marriage to the political forefront. TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE LOSS OF RIGHTS After a decade of playing defense in the struggle to protect marriage in America, recent legal and political developments have set the stage to reframe the marriage debate by exposing the truth that the destruction of marriage leads to the loss of civil rights. But this is an opportunity that can only be seized by a coalition as broad and diverse as the Alliance for Marriage. The time has come to expose the reality that the destruction of marriage leads to the loss of civil rights for those who believe in the timeless definition of marriage as the union of male and female. Moreover, going on offense in this area is now essential to protecting the basic liberties and freedoms of people of faith - and indeed the majority of Americans - from those groups and forces who are determined to carry the social, legal and political logic of the destruction of marriage to its inevitable conclusions. The destruction of marriage in Canada and Massachusetts has now produced conclusive evidence that the destruction of marriage will lead to the widespread loss of civil rights. For example, after serving as the primary non-governmental provider of adoption services in New England for over a hundred years, Catholic Charities of Massachusetts was recently forced by the state of Massachusetts to close its entire adoption program. Similarly, in Canada, Catholics, Evangelicals, and others are facing the widespread loss of their free speech rights, rights o f religious free exercise, and the right to run faith-based schools and charities because their views on marriage have been declared to be a form of hatred under law. DEPLOYING A DIVERSE GROUP OF SPOKESPERSONS AFM has already developed a broad and diverse group of spokespersons who have proven themselves in public debate and are willing to represent AFM in support of our cause. AFM's broad marriage coalition is unique and unprecedented in the degree to which it cuts across racial, cultural and religious boundary lines. For this reason, AFM will continue to make every effort to field a team of spokespersons who reflects the deep and wide consensus in America with respect to the definition of marriage. Telling the truth about the loss of rights due to the destruction of marriage requires a movement that includes major civil rights groups, African-American, Latinos, Jews and Catholics - all of whom can speak with authority (and from experience) in a way that will allow supporters of marriage to take back the critical language and symbolism of civil rights in the marriage debate. The success of a campaign to preserve and protect marriage will require that the civil rights leaders serving on the AFM Advisory Board have the platform to speak as credible and forceful representatives on behalf of their communities. EXPANDING OUR MASSIVE POWER BASE IN THE STATES In pursuing these state strategies, AFM is taking a page from the playbook of our opponents. For example, in the aftermath of the 1994 elections, radical activists recognized they would no longer be able to advance their political agenda through the federal legislative process. Thus, these radical groups turned their political machinery and resources to the state legislative process to advance their agenda. In turn, these efforts at the state level provided the foundation for the legislative agenda of these groups in the current Congress. Recognizing the political realities defined by the mid-term elections, the Alliance for Marriage will engage in a strategic shift to focus on state legislatures where our cause enjoys massive popular support. The centerpiece of this effort will be advancing State Marriage Amendments in the twenty-three states that currently do not provide constitutional protection for the future of marriage. By engaging in this effort, we will build upon the tremendous momentum for state marriage amendments that has swept every election in recent memory - including the most recent mid-term elections - in ways that defy partisan politics and partisan political categories. Alternatively, as a second tier approach, AFM will work with state legislators when possible to advance a Marriage Protection Resolution, a non-binding model resolution calling upon a state's congressional delegation and Congressional Leadership in Washington to send the Marriage Protection Amendment to the states for ratification. This strategy places out-of-touch U.S. Senators and House members on notice that the people back home will hold them accountable. At the same time, AFM will also develop Model Legislation centered upon marriage, family, and the core mission of the Alliance for Marriage. Such Model Legislation will be independently introduced and advanced by state legislators in their respective states. A GRASSROOTS ARMY OF 6 MILLION NATIONWIDE In recent years, the Far Left has further devolved their efforts down from the federal level to the states by using cutting-edge email and web-based communications technology, pioneered by groups like Moveon.org. In addition to funding the activist agenda of the Far Left, this technology has allowed radical groups like Moveon.org to advance their political goals in states by effectively applying pressure upward from the grassroots. AFM is perfectly poised to "electronically" go on the offensive and to take our message to the entire nation over the next few years. Combining the Civil Rights Offense Strategy with the launch of AFM's State Marriage Strategy will allow us to take the next step in gaining and identifying our constituent base - state by state. This approach has several direct benefits to the AFM electronic grassroots mobilization effort. First, AFM will be further energizing like minded citizens with MPA issues that strike closer to home, specifically within their state. Secondarily, we will be building an extensive grassroots base, state by state, that will be invaluable - both now and in the future. The chart above shows the dramatic increase in the Alliance for Marriage addressable universe of potential constituents, donors and activists. Beginning from our March 2006 baseline of regular communications to roughly 80k constituents, AFM now regularly communicates with over 5.9M like minded Americans bi-monthly (or more frequent) basis. The Alliance for Marriage coalition is wholly unique in its ability to draw support across ethnic, political and economic lines. This means that our grassroots mobilization efforts are not limited to the successful concepts employed along party or ideological positions. Rather our mobilization tools include the best practices from a wide variety of successful organizations, including MoveOn.org, Grassfire.com, the GOP, the DNC as well as successful commercial venture methodologies. As we synthesize and incorporate these mobilization techniques we are building the largest, most diverse and most effectively aggressive pro-marriage movement in the history of America -- state by state. CONCLUSION As we continue to build our national movement, we would do well to remember what my friend Dr. Walter Fauntroy, organizer of the March on Washington for Martin Luther King, once said when a reporter derisively commented on the difficulty of advancing our cause in Congress: "As Dr. King's personal representative to the House and Senate, I can remember how our efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act were met with opposition year after year. We faced hostile committee chairmen. We faced hostile leaders in both parties - including many powerful Congressmen from the South. We also faced the scorn of some in the media. But we knew that our cause was just. And we knew that most Americans of goodwill supported our cause. So we came back year after year. At the time, we had a simple saying - and it's the same saying that would apply to the cause of protecting marriage in our day. We used to say We Shall Overcome." Thank you for helping AFM to overcome through your friendship and partnership in our cause. God bless you, Matt Daniels, J.D., Ph.D. Founder and President Click here to become a Defender of Marriage.