Great crowd rallies in Saint Cloud

Today we held another very successful and upbeat rally in Saint Cloud, Minnesota.

It was my first time this far north into Minnesota and it was great to have the opportunity to be there, to meet the people and to speak with them about why they need to stand up for marriage.

I had come to Minnesota a few years back but stayed in the Minneapolis area, visited the Mall of America and had dinner at a Russian restaurant in Saint Paul.

Anyway, the message was particularly important for the people of Minnesota because activists pushing the homosexual agenda have opened multiple fronts in the legislative branch, are working hard to elect a sympathetic governor this year and they are trying to legalize same-sex marriage through the judicary as well.

That is why our message today focused on educating the public about the imminent threat that marriage is facing here.

Unlike some other states, the threat is imminent here and the elections this November may very well be the most important elections for the state of Minnesota in terms of protecting things like marriage, life and family. That is the message Chuck Darrel of the Minnesota Family Council delivered to our rally of over two hundred.

Chuck did a great job of demonstrating the urgency of the issue and of motiviating the crowd to take action. Chuck was also with us in Saint Paul yesterday in front of the Minnesota State Capitol but I still need to confirm whether or not he will be with us tomorrow in Rochester, MN. I will update on that later on.

Like I mentioned, we had at least two hundred attendees today and the best part is that they were an active crowd. You could sense that they were engaged and excited to be there and I know that when they left our rally today they were going to go home and spread the word. I remember one man who I was standing next to for a period of time who wanted to know how he could organize a GOTV effort within his church, as one of our speakers suggested to the crowd as a way of taking action.

Luckily for him, one of our supporters was Minnesota State Representative Steve Gottwalt, who represents MN District 15A in the State House.

He came to our rally today, wore our marriage sticker and explained to the man how he could set up a group to get out the vote. It was great to meet Mr. Gottwalt.

So again we signed up a bunch of new supporters, handed out hundreds of stickers, buttons and pens. We also had bumper stickers this time - one with the NOM logo alone and the other with the NOM logo and "National Organization for Marriage" written under it.

As for the protesters, there were enough to count on one hand and they stayed closer to the street, held and few signs and kept to themselves. They weren't an issue.

Our stalkers from California were lurking around our crowd, though. They too basically kept to themselves. One of them sat on the grass typing away at her computer and the other had his nose in his camera for the majority of the rally.


I am encouraged. We've had two rallies without a disrespectful group of protesters. It's off to Rochester.

READ MORE - Great crowd rallies in Saint Cloud

Great marriage rally today in Saint Paul

Today was a beautiful day in Saint Paul. 


First, the weather couldn't have been better for an outdoor rally. 


Second, about two hundred others from all around Minnesota must have agreed with me as they made their way out to the Minnesota State Capitol to stand with me and the National Organization for Marriage for our "One Man, One Woman" marriage rally which kicked-off shortly after noon today. 


We had a great bunch of speakers today including NOM's President Brian Brown, Chuck Darrel of the Minnesota Family Policy Council, Pastor Brad Brandon of KKMS Radio, Senior Pastor Bob Battle of the Berean Church of God in Christ, and Father Michael Becker, representing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. 

Today we had some protesters who had arrived early but all in all they were quiet and respectful. There were exceptions, though. 


One loner silently walked around our rally with her rainbow flag. She didn't seem to be a part of the official counter protest. 


Like I said, she didn't say a word but did tip her hat to us a few times towards the end of the rally. She was a non-issue. 


We also had in attendance two people I was particularly pleased to meet today and that is Minnesota State Senator Warren Limmer, who represents District 32 in the Minnesota State Senate and Tom Prichard, the President of the Minnesota Family Policy Council.


It was a pleasure meeting Senator Limmer today because he is a huge supporter of one man, one woman marriage and has authored legislation that would amend Minnesota's state constitution to define marriage between a man and a woman. 


To the right is a picture of Senator Limmer standing with the President of the Minnesota Family Policy Council, Tom Prichard. Warren is on the right, Tom on the left. Mr. Prichard has led the struggle against same-sex marriage in Minnesota and we owe him our thanks as well. 


Towards the end of our rally, we did come across more of what we've unfortunately become accustomed to seeing throughout the Summer for Marriage Tour - disrespect and intolerence from those who demand just that from us. 

Granted today's protesters, including the ones I am pointing out here were much more in control of themselves, unlike what we have seen in Madison, Providence and Albany. 


However, it isn't appropriate for the protesters to chalk up our stage area with foul language. There were small kids in the front row of that rally. Yet, that didn't stop one of the protesters.


Other messages included "We Recruit" as well as "Gay" with an arrow pointing to the NOM podium, which was written while Brian Brown was addressing the crowd. 


The protester who went around writing this stuff all over was quick and drew a bit of attention to herself. It was actually funny because she drew the attention of the local media and they started following her around trying to get a shot of what she was doing.

She then disappeared into the crowd and wasn't seen from again.

And that reminds me of our stalkers from California who have been following us around, sometimes getting up real close and personal, trying to film Brian Brown holding private conversations with his family, his children.
They've peered over his shoulder as he used his Blackberry, stuff like that. Well, we noticed that since they were rightfully removed from the rally site in Annapolis for doing all of the above (not for documenting the rally as they claim), they obtained press passes which they've been wearing on their shirts since then.

So why when I wanted to look at their  press passes today, they did everything they could to turn them around so I couldn't see them?

Their videographer even went so far as to turn around the press pass of one of his colleagues before I could get a glimpse of it.

So let's look at what happened step by step.

First, as you can see in photograph one, the press pass is visible and right-side-up. He doesn't realize I am there and is continuing to record Brian for the umpteeth minute of his umpteenth interview since the beginning of the Summer for Marriage Tour.




Then, the videographer notices I am taking an interest in his press pass and in step two he blocks my view with his hand. Hm, that's interesting. Maybe he had a bad hair day or something and didn't want me to see his photo.




Now, at the end of the process, as photograph three shows, the press pass is turned around and not visible. What is the secret? What are our friends from the NOM Tour Tracker Blog trying to hide? What's the purpose of wearing press passes if you turn them around when someone wants to see them?


But it goes a little further than that and it wasn't about his photo. When I noticed he didn't want to let me look at his press pass, I turned to his colleague, whose name I didn't catch because... (try to guess).... the videographer flipped that one over too!

At that point the three of them were wearing flipped-over press passes and were stubbornly opposed to anyone actually looking at anything more than the big "PRESS" headline on it. What's the big secret?

Overall, we had a great rally and signed up a great number of new supporters, gave out hundreds of pens, stickers and our T-shirts were quite popular. The event did catch the attention of a handful of local media, which I mentioned earlier, so we had a pretty successful day.

READ MORE - Great marriage rally today in Saint Paul

Update from the road: Illinois

I don't spend my entire day working on blogs like some people do but I do think this blog has just implemented a nice new aspect to it which will improve the reader's ability to comment on my posts. The down side is that when I added the widget, I lost all the old comments from the previous posts.

Maybe I didn't do it exactly right but I read somewhere online that you could add disqus to the blogger and have it include the previous posts. Anyway, what's done is done and that's it.

So at the moment we are driving to Madison, Wisconsin I don't quite know exactly where we are but we are in the general vacinity of Chicago. Contrary to the beliefs of many of our opponents, we are not taking a detour off the marriage tour to stop in South Bend, IN as our stalkers from California and the NOM Tour Tracker claim.

I don't know who their "source on the ground" is but he or she doesn't seem quite reliable. He or she also predicted that the Providence, RI rally was going to be cancelled and that we would blame the weather for that. We went to Providence. We held our rally. Our opponents made fools out of themselves.

 And so we are long past South Bend, Indiana.

OK, so we are actually at a toll booth right now so I can see that we are at least in Illinois, as I suspected. So that means we'll be setting our clocks back an hour. We'll be meeting up with Brian Brown and his family, which are returning to the tour with us in Madison.

The Brown family had some business to tend to out west and so they stepped off the tour for a few stops but Madison will be great because we will have both Brian and Maggie as speakers. It should be a great rally as have been all the rallies that we have held so far. We've signed up hundreds of people from around the country who want to be active in the struggle against the redefinition of marriage.

We want to get 2 million people signed up from all over the country. So far we've got a little over 700,000 people from every corner of this country who support our mission and want to be involved. So I think we've made great progress towards our goal and this summer marriage tour is helping that very mission.

We're signing up supporters in the most important places in the country where marriage is under attack and the people's elected representatives are working to redefine marriage. We've been to Maryland, which may gay rights activists claim is their next major target. Of course we've been to New York and New Jersey where we won huge battles against same-sex marriage last year in December. We kicked-off our marriage tour in Maine, where we won - and won big - in November, 2009.

Now, like I said, we're going to Wisconsin -a state which only 4 years ago voted by an overwhelming supermajority to ban same-sex marriage in their state. It was also in Wisconsin earlier this month that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the state's constitiional amendment defining marriage between a man and a woman.

We're going to Iowa, where we are working to let the people vote. We'll be going to DC to wrap up our tour for this very same reason and let me assure all of you that the people of DC will have their say and when they do, the integrity of marriage will be restored with the repeal of same-sex marriage in our Nation's Capital.

Today we had a great rally in Indianapolis. I'll post about this later on my blog because I'm having computer issues getting the pictures from the camera's memory card to my laptop. Don't worry, we've got some interesting information about what happened in Indianapolis that you won't hear from our opponents because they probably wish you didn't know about it.

READ MORE - Update from the road: Illinois

Columbus gay marriage protest for 'civil rights' was antithetical

Today we held our rally in Columbus, Ohio at the Statehouse shortly after noon under the hot sun. It wasn't too bad though, thanks to the occasional breeze and a cooler with ice-cold drinks for our staff and supporters. 

From the start of our rally, the protesters that had assembled on site at approximately 11:30 am whistled and shouted from the sidewalk in attempt to deny those who came to our rally the right to assembly - and our speakers, the right to free speech. It shocks me how hypocritcal some of the gay marriage activists are. 

One one hand, they hold a sign advocating 'civil rights' for all but use their other hand to deny the civil rights of those who don't support their agenda. 

The freedom of assembly is not merely the freedom to physically assemble at a particular location. The freedom of speech is not merely the freedom to physically utter words. 

These rights, enumerated to us in the First Amendment, are about the freedom of assembly without harrassment and about the freedom of speech without impediment. 

Yet "harrass and impede" seems to have been the strategy of our opponents today. As I said, as soon as our first speaker rose to the podium, the gay marriage activists in unison created as much noise and hullabaloo as possible. 

No, they didn't bring water bottles filled with rocks this time. No, they didn't have bullhorns, either. That was Providence. They've learned from that mistake. Providence to this day remains an embarressment to the overall homosexual agenda. 

This time the activists resorted to whistling and hollering and even taunting some of those in attendance.

One elderly couple, including a U.S. Army veteran, had trouble making it through the group of activists who were blocking the main entrance to the plaza prior to the beginning of the rally.

He expressed to them his disapproval of their tactics upon finally making it through. He was alright though. More relieved than anything. This, of course, is a much more of a civil way of expressing one's feelings than our opponents had. 

Now was this necessary? We all know what those middle fingers represent. Vulgarity. Why must the gay marriage activists be so vulgar? It's not anything new, though. They were vulgar in Albany. They were vulgar in Providence. They were vulgar throughout the Proposition 8 campaign. 

Now, the vast majority of the protesters respected our permit rights to the south lawn of the Statehouse and did not encroach on that. Most likely because of the strong police presence. However, that didn't stop some particularly bold activists from infringing on that permit. 

Now I do not have a problem if our opponents want to attend our rally. In fact, I encourage it. If only they would actually listen to our speakers they might actually learn what we stand for and why. Talk about ignorance. These people don't even listen to what our speakers say then have the audacity to critisize what was said? Seriously? 

I don't expect any of them to change their minds by listening to the speakers. I do believe, however, that at the very least there would be a clearer understanding of who we are and what we stand for. It's not about hatred of homosexuals. How many times have you heard that people who don't support gay marriage don't support it because they hate gay people? Some of the activists today were pushing that very point. 

It couldn't be further from the truth. Our message and our mission is not about hate. I would suggest to our opponents to stop yelling and screaming during one of our rallies and just listen for the sake of hearing what has to be said. Then, criticize what was actually said if you feel the need to. The problem is most of what I personally heard from the activists today were topics we haven't even talked about on the marriage tour. 

Moving on. There was one couple (one of those bolder couples who came into the rally itself) who were particularly disappointing. The two men decided not to just attend the rally but they brought a baby with them. Notice I said 'a baby" because it isn't "their baby". It was clearly adopted. They were white the baby was not. 

This baby has been adopted and is being raised in a house of homosexuality and can't even speak yet. Who will speak for this and all the other children who are adopted and are being subjected to a house of homosexuality?

Let's say this couple was 'married' on paper by one of the states that have legalized same-sex 'marriage'. That doesn't change the fact that, according to recent research from San Francisco State University, a great number of same-sex couples, whether they are 'married' to each other or not are in open relationships! 

Is this the kind of household we want to be putting adopted children into? Who will speak for these children? Nonetheless, they came. So be it. However, and I'll take my words from the Ohio State Troopers on this one, the couple came to the rally to stand as a "symbol".


What kind of parents use their children as symbols? Coming to the rally and standing there quietly as they did wasn't enough. They had to make a statement - a statement that involved exploiting their own child for their own gain. This is why I will emphasize the fact that adoption exists to give children the parents they need - not to give parents the children they want. These two men are not the kind of parents this child needs. 

Now this woman for some reason thought that our rally had something to do with losing her job based on, as she claimed, suspicion of homosexuality. I really don't understand just how our marriage rally and the fact that she lost her job and is still sour about it have anything to do with each other but OK, whatever. 

This photo was cropped because I believe the girl standing next to her was a minor, probably no older than fifteen or sixteen so out of respect for her, I've taken her out. 

But yes, this woman, getting back to their strategy of impediment, tried to occupy the Concerned Women for America of Ohio table with her sob story and struggled for several minutes to force the nice woman working the booth to answer why she lost her job sometime in the past. 

It even got to the point that the police came over to "respectfully ask" the woman to move on. I quoted above because that is literally what the trooper said to her. She resisted, claiming she was just getting literature, which had already been in her hand for a while by that time, but eventually moved on at the officer's request. 

Again, nothing wrong with being there. Nothing wrong with asking questions. But this woman went above and beyond that, bordering harassment. 

Tomorrow we are headed out to Lima, Ohio where we will be holding our next rally. We will be on private property so I am not really expecting too much of an appearance by our friends at Equality Ohio. They've got some picnic planned at a park quite a distance away from our rally location. 

READ MORE - Columbus gay marriage protest for 'civil rights' was antithetical

Providence sparks infighting among homosexual activists

Well, we had our longest drive of our marriage tour thus far. It wasn't too bad, though. Trenton to Annapolis is only a couple of hours. Along the way we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner at a nice little restaurant in Pennsylvania. Being a native of Buffalo, I had a Buffalo Chicken Wrap but everyone else was insisting on getting Cheese Steak this or Cheese Steak that. Not for me.

Anyway, I have been monitoring our opponents response to their behavior in Providence the other day and saw pretty strong split in opinion.

Some praise the radical homosexual activists who stormed our podium and yelled in the faces of our speakers, who rattled water bottles filled with little stones, who engaged in lengthly tongue kissing in front of a crowd of parents and their young children, who made sexually suggestive gestures with their hands (again in front of a crowd of parents and their young children), who targeted those same very children with their hateful rhetoric, among other things.

And then there were some who saw the error in what the counter-protesters did in Providence. It was good to see that at least some of our opponents have common sense and reason and were able to see even when those on their own side had made a mistake and I would like to take the time to applaud such integrity. Of course, I am specifically referring to this blog entry from the Box Turtle Bulletin.

Now of course there is going to be differences of opinion not only between opposing sides of an issue but also amongst those of the same side. This happens all the time and for practically every politically divisive issue. However, I would like to draw to your attention the extent to which those those who actually support what happened in Providence went in response to BTB's blog post.

In this first image, which may or may not still be viewable on the aforementioned blog entry, you can see a perfect example of how quickly the most radical of the homosexual agenda, the ones who support the protesters actions in Providence, turn on one of their own the moment he doesn't stay on message.

Look at first post from Wendy. First off all, she is incorrect about the man speaking in tongues. That was not Brian Brown and someone corrected her on that further down in the comments.

But let's look at what she wrote after that. "I find your article severely more damaging than a couple of protesters...". So here she recogizes the damage caused by the radical protesters. Here's where she goes too far, just like those in Providence did.

"Take this [expletive] down and write a supportive piece and stow the caninbalization and sell out." Here she is scolding one of her own because he had the audacity to tell the truth, the audacity to admit a mistake. She turned on him. According to who was once a 'fan', the author of that article is a sell-out. Nice. Tolerant.

Wendy continues. "I'm normally a devote fan but this is a terrible anti-community piece." So does this Wendy girl want to hear only one-sided stories? Is she only interested in pro-LGBT propaganda? Is she really saying that it woud be better if the writer put a spin on everything to paint the LGBT community in only positive light?

 OK, so I guess the writer's name is Jim Burroway. Well, props to you Jim for writing this article and for keeping it posted after pressure to remove it and replace it with something less-truthful but more positive for 'the community'.

So even though Mr. Burroway has some integrity, as you can see in his response to Wendy, reading through his response demonstrates the rational side of the divide in 'the community' over what happened in Providence.

Mr. Burroway comes right out and says what the protesters did in Providence was stupid. I was there and I am for the other side, as you all know, and even I didn't use such strong language to describe their actions. Not that I object to his choice of words.

Mr. Burroway says something about the fact that principles matter. I agree. What I do everyday is stand for the principle that marriage is between a man and a woman because it is what is best for society, best for families, best for children, best for everyone as a whole. Now I realize that this causes problems for 'the community' which seek fair and equal treatment. This too, is a principle for which we should all stand for.

When it comes to fair and equal treatment of homosexuals, I am going to clearly state that I and the National Organization for Marriage and every other rational person believes in the fair and equal treatment of all people. This was one of the points Brian Brown emphasized during our rally in Manchester, NH.

Let's clarify. There are some benefits and protections afforded to married couples which same-sex couples can not obtain while same-sex marriage remains illegal.

The solution to this is not the redefiniton of marriage, not the changing of family structures but the legislation of due rights for this 'community'. There are rights and protections same-sex couples ought to have - fair and equal treatement - but we don't have to redefine marriage in order for them to obtain them.

So back on track. Here, AdrianT calls "babyish" and "infantile" what the protesters did in Providence. He even calls Wendy out on her statements and her speaking for the LGBT 'community'.

Well good for you AdrianT.

I am honestly impressed with the overall concensus from your side of this issue, from 'the community', that what your friends and allies did in Providence was inappropriate. I am glad to see that both of us are able to draw the same conclusions on this matter and find something to agree on.

But that doesn't change the fact that there are members of your 'community' who condone and were excited by what happened in Providence. Unfortunately, I believe we will see more of that type of behavior during the rest of the Summer Marriage Tour.

I've already seen some homosexual activists vowing to come out to protest our rally in Annapolis later today. It's 1AM so I am referring to the Annapolis rally as today for that reason. I still have yet to go to bed and wake up on the day of the Annapolis rally.

We'll have to see if reason and respect win out as it did in New Jersey today. Garden State Equality did a good job at keeping their members at bay and away from our rally in front of the Statehouse in Trenton today.

We were expecting problems but were relieved when we came across a message from GSE President telling their members not to harrass us. They obviously did not want to see a repeat of Providence.

This picture shows how bold GSE's members were willing to go during our rally.

Yet on the other hand that just further demonstrates the divide on the issue, the difference in opinion on strategy and tactics. I am thrilled to see that the majority of that 'community' is standing with people like myself and the National Organization for Marriage in opposition to the kind of behavior we witnessed in Providence.

READ MORE - Providence sparks infighting among homosexual activists

Gay activists deal blow to homosexual agenda at Providence rally

So strangely enough, the blogs last night were not full of updates and commentary about yesterdays's National Organization for Marriage rally in Providence, Rhode Island. The reason is simple. The gay rights activists who marched onto the rally were such an embarressment to their overall nationwide agenda that no one wants to praise what they did. I thought I'd sit on this story over night and see what was said. Not much.

Forming a line of about a hundred-fifty dressed in red shirts, bearing rainbow flags and multiple signs, the activists marched from the side of the Statehouse in Providence down and away from the location our rally was set up. This is what they told the police they planned to do.

No more. Well, that was quite the understatement.

Once again, during Dr. Morse's speech, the red shirts made their way towards our rally. They stopped just before where the police had parked their vehicles.

Their goal was to shout as loud as they could, some using bull horns, so that those attending our rally could not hear our speakers. We turned up the volume and Dr. Morse led us in loud cheers of our own.

Upon noticing that the police were not going to do anything to stop them, the activists got bold and sent out a subgroup of them to take over the territory behind our podium.

Bearing signs, cameras and rainbow flags, a couple of them made their way around the rally and set up camp behind where Dr. Morse was speaking.

They immediatey began shouting as loud as they could to draw attention to themselves over the Doctor's speech and were quickly joined by more, fare bolder activists who came shaking water bottles filled with little stones to rattle around. There goal was to make it as difficult as they could to hear our speakers, our message. It worked against them.

Brian Brown took to the podium again. The protesters were getting out of control and they were about to do exactly what would be their undoing. This photo has already gone viral over the internet as it shows the hate and militant tactics the homosexual activists use in their 'civil rights' movement.

The reality is, as Brian Brown has said many times, the real civil rights movement is for us to stand up for not only what we believe in, but to stand up for our ability to express our beliefs - exactly what these people were attempting to prevent us from doing.

These people hold parades about things like tolerance and respect and equality for all. These are just words to them. Just slogans. They have no grasp as to what they actually mean. They are just the kids of civil rights activists looking to join a movement.

They sincerely believe in what they do and I'm sure it is with the best of intentions. I believe people are generally good people at heart but there are always some who, for one reason or another, fall off the deep end. In Providence, those same people gathered in masse.

Are these the faces of tolerance? Of equality? Of love and respect? Are these the faces of a movement which prides itself in acceptace of all and of comstitutional freedoms? Ironic how, the very same man in the blue shirt stayed on site after our rally trying to quiz us on whether or not we knew what the amendments to the Constitution were. He wanted us to tell him what certain amendments were, specifically the 3rd, 4th or 14th Amendments.  I would like to suggest to him that he go home and read the first amendment as it pertains to the right to assembly - he might learn a thing or two about how this country is supposed to work.

At that point, although the Providence Police did little to enforce our right to assembly, they did finally remove the protesters from in front of the podium but not completely. Our speakers were at least able to approach the podium without being shouted down by gay activists with rainbow flags on their backs.


That, however, did not apply to these lesbian activists, one of which wearing a shirt that wrote "I love female orgasms" who sat in front of the podium kissing and touching each other right in front of our marriage supporters - many of which brought their children. They did not care whatsoever.

We've got pictures of them and their indeceny - including pictures of them making-out and making sexually suggestive gestures.


Now we get into the part where the remaining horde of the activists formed two flanks and approached our stage area from the left and right to take over the steps behind us. They assembled on the steps yelling and screaming and rattling their water bottles.

By this time, their leader had approached the two kissing and fondling lesbians pictured above and had them move from the stage area. Seems like maybe one of them was seeing the error in their ways.

The climax of the rally was amazing. The protesters were rattling their stones and chanting their chants and trying their best to drown out our speakers. Brian Brown stopped his speech and led our supporters in a chant of our own. While our opponets were chanting "Get your hate out of our state," Brian led our supporters in an amazingly loud and effective "One Man, One Woman!" chant.

The protesters and the might of their stone-filled water bottles were no match. Their signs, one of which you can see to the right, give an insight as to what their line of thinking is. Is this really what they think? This sign goes right along with one of their chants when they said "Heterosexuality is a sin."

The rally ended wiithout any arrests or any physical altercations but I would like to highlight the extent to which the activists went to spew their hate and the remarkably dispicable tactics they used.

Towards the end of the rally a group of them converged onto a mother and her four or five young kids.

The activists went right after the kids asking them questions like "Hey, is your mommy and daddy raising you to grow up to be bigots just like them?" The kids, the youngest of which an infact and the eldest about nine were escorted away from the activists by their mother and another woman. I approached them shortly afterwards and they were visually shaken up. Again, a movement of tolerance, love and respect for all.

So much happened yesterday that I may have left out some important details but if something comes to mind I'll definately add it to this post so everyone can really understand which side is spewing the hate. Which side is attacking who? As you can see in this video, the hate and bullying tactics weren't confined to the activists out of Providence and unfortunately, I suspect we are in for more as this tour continues.

READ MORE - Gay activists deal blow to homosexual agenda at Providence rally

Some doubt presence of dogs in counter-protest rally

This will be a post to put an end to any doubt about whether or not the dogs shown in my earlier blog post were affiliated with the rude counter protest or not.

I am going to simply provide the photographic evidence and leave it to my readers to decide for themselves. So, the question is this: Are the dogs pictured in my earlier blog a part of the counter-protest or is their owner just someone passing by in the park?

What is it they say about a picture? Oh yes, that they speak a thousand words. Photograph number one, located below shows Dr. Morse speaking to marriage supporters surrounded by activists of the homosexual agenda on both sides.

The visible side of the photo shows five activists bearing umbrellas in a rainbow pattern and all dressed in white shirts with a red heart on the back that reads "Do you see my love?"

According to some activists of the homosexual agenda, the sixth man in the photo, the one without the umbrella, just happens to be walking his dog in the park and is not affiliated with the counter-protesters. So he is going to be our mystery man for this post. According to our opponents, I took a close-up shot of this man's dogs in order to create the illusion that the homosexual activists brought the dogs with them.

So even though he is wearing the same shirt as the counter-protesters and regardless of the fact that he is standing in the same organized line with them and ignoring the fact that he is not making any type of forward motion that would come with walking a dog in a park, some would have you believe he just happened to be there.

But maybe we still need to examine this further.

Maybe it's not clear to some of our opponents who may still believe, regardless of his clothing and physical location, that he is not a counter-protester and thus, by default, the dogs were not a part of the counter-protest strategy. So, let's look at them from another angle and see if we can work it out.

As you can see in photograph number two, we've got a different angle on the trio. From this vantage point, we can still see the activists on the stage with our mystery man and his two dogs.

Now our opponents would have you believe that this mystery man is in fact a "park-goer" who just happens to be walking his dogs in the park in the general vacinity of the marriage rally.

General vacinity? This mystery man is not only right up there on the stage but he is standing shoulder to shoulder with the other activists bearing the rainbow umbrellas. Not to mention the very same white shirt with the heart logo on the back.

Now, comparing the two pictures also demonstrates to us that he is not walking his dogs because between picture one and picture two the mystery man made zero forward progress in that walk and in picture two he is actually standing tall. He's not going anywhere soon. In fact, his dogs are facing directly towards the crowd  while he is facing the opposite direction! Seems to me if he was walking his dogs, they would have to be facing at least in the same direction our mystery man is facing.

Yet, they will make the claim that this mystery man just happened to be in the area and I asked them for a photo and manipulated said photo in such a way so as to paint the counter-protesters as bullies. Nearly.

Let's see, I'm not sure we've proven beyond an activist's doubt that the mystery man is in fact a member of the counter protest and by default, his dogs are a part of the counter-protest strategy.

However, I believe I've proven beyond a reasonable doubt of any reasonable person. So much for this comment by one of the most hateful members of the homosexual community I have ever come across.

READ MORE - Some doubt presence of dogs in counter-protest rally

NOM rallies supporters in Albany despite rude interlopers

After a day off and a night spent in downtown Albany, we were back at it this afternoon with a rally set up in front of the Capital Building in Albany, NY.

Local supporters were happy with the turnout, explaining that downtown Albany is a "ghost town" on weekends.

Brian Brown kicked-off the rally shortly after two under the hot sun, thanking all in attendance for everything they did back in December, 2009 when the same-sex marriage bill was coming up for a vote and the majority party was claiming they had the votes to pass the bill. It was because of the phone calls marriage supporters like those in attendance made the night prior to the vote that the bill was ultimately defeated.

After that, Mr. Brown introduced Dr. Jennifer Morse of the Ruth Institute. She went on to make the points that kids need a mom and a dad and that moms and dads are not interchangeable. She said if you look at the studies that the gay lobby put out, they want you to believe that the only good man is a gay man.

It was also during Dr. Morse's speech that that very same gay lobby decided to interupt our rally.

Marching in organized single-file lines bearing umbrellas, the activists marched from behind and took over the stage where Dr. Morse and the other speakers were to be speaking. They didn't make much noise but did monopolize the stage area. Apparently, they were there without a permit which caused a few State Troopers to arrive and inform that they could not rally at that time and location without a permit. The police left the scene shortly afterwards, leaving the homosexual activists surrounding the podium.

Dr. Morse welcomed them and the marriage supporters and continued with her message. The protesters got close but for the most part remained silent. For the most part. I'll get into that later on.

By the way, the boy in the bright blue shirt standing up close to get a good picute is Danny Segura from an organization promoting the homosexual agenda who are paying for Mr. Danny to travel around the country with the Summer for Marriage Tour.

He lurks around throughout the rallies and then interviews those who attended afterwards looking for them to say something that they can skew and use against the National Organization for Marriage and the cause to protect marriage.

So far no problem. But I would like to highlight two aspects of their counter-protest which raised alarm. The first, as you can see in the picture to the left, they brought some dogs with them.

Now if this isn't a bullying tactic, I don't know what is. I mean, look at this dog they've got standing with them. Luckily, he was on a leash.

So much for the "equality for all" slogans they toss around. Must be equality for all who support the homosexual agenda because, as you will see, the activists who surrounded our rally with their rainbow umbrellas were rude and disrespectful to one of our supporters.

Sitting on the grass with her three young kids, Maria, pictured to the right, was prohibited from viewing the rally from this line of homosexual activists who refused to move over a few feet to allow for a line of vision for the nursing mother. She asked them and we also asked them to stand slightly to the left or right out of respect for Maria but they wouldn't budge. One of them even threatened us when we asked them to move over. One of those 'you better not touch us' lines. Really classy.

But that's not it. After we were unsuccessful at getting them to move over for Maria, it gets worse. If you noticed, I mentioned that Maria is a nursing mother. I did that for a reason. During the rally, Maria asked the protesters to at least turn around and face the rally so that she could nurse her baby. They refused and said that if she wanted to nurse her baby that she should get up, pack up and move elsewhere. Maria told me she was frightened by the activists.

Aside from that the activists themselves started marching around the outside of the rally area after Brian issued a call to those in attendance to take action by signing up with the NOM team.

They marched around in a single-file line shouting "Martin Luther King supported equality for all" at the top of their lungs over and over again. Kind of ironic because Martin Luther King's niece, Alveda King, is a strong supporter of traditional marriage. We turned up the music and signed up more supporters.

READ MORE - NOM rallies supporters in Albany despite rude interlopers

Enthusiastic rally for traditional marriage in Manchester

Early this morning we set out for Manchester, New Hampshire from Maine and we arrived in the host city of our second rally of the Summer for Marriage Tour just before 10:00 AM. We arrived even before our local partners with the New Hampshire Family Policy Council so I enjoyed a chocolate glazed doughnut and grape juice from the little shop across from City Hall and enjoyed the early morning sun for my first time in New Hampshire.

Then we got to work and everything went pretty smoothly which gave us time to play some music prior to the rally, which started on time at noon with an introduction by Brian Brown who gave a very charismatic speech about how we will not tolerate being labled as bigots for standing up for what we believe in.


He then drew our attention to the fledging group of activists of the homosexual agenda assembled in the back.

"Now throughout this debate we've heard alot of name-calling. We've always stood up for the dignity of all persons. We've always stood up for the love and respect of all persons. We've always stood up for basic civility."

He received great applause from a crowd of marriage supporters that had quicky grown to over 150.

It is worth a note that the twenty-or-so gay marriage activists in the back held signs about hate but posed no problem, were not disruptive and did not interfere.

That is the kind of civility that I talk about all the time.

There is no reason why people from polar opposites of an issue even as contentious as this can't be civil and respectful towards one another and we saw that today in Manchester.

Dr. Morse from the Ruth Institute joined us again and spoke about secular and natural reasons to support traditional marriage between a man and a woman. Her speech was very helpful because it provided those in attendance with the information they need to answer some of the questions our opponents constantly ask.

When Dr. Morse uploads the audio of her speech to her blog, we will include the link here.

Kenneth Smith, the President of the New Hampshire Family Policy Council also joined us and spoke today.

He was well-received and it is important to point out that he has been a huge help in New Hampshire doing what needs to be done to prevent some pretty radical pieces of legislation from becoming law.

He reminded those in attendance that the power to control what happens in the next election lies with them. He made a special point about John Lynch and how Lynch lied about gay marriage when he campaiged against it and then turned around signed the gay marriage bill into law.

Pastor Thomas Peetz of the Word of Life Christian Fellowship of Concord, NH also attended and spoke at our rally.

Tomorrow morning we are heading out of New Hampshire for our Saturday rally in Albany, NY at the Capital Building there. That rally is followed by our fourth stop which will take place in Providence, RI.

READ MORE - Enthusiastic rally for traditional marriage in Manchester

Summer Marriage Tour kicks-off in Augusta

Poor weather forecasts, early morning showers and overcast skies did not stop nearly a hundred marriage supporters from turning out this afternoon at Capital Park in Augusta, Maine for the kick-off rally of the Summer for Marriage Tour.

Shortly before noon, local news cameras and reporters showed up in anticipation of the event.

They were followed shortly thereafter with marriage supporters bearing signs supporting traditional marriage between a man and a woman.

The rally opened up with Brian Brown, the President of the National Organization for Marriage and included a handful of other speakers including Jennifer Roback-Morse of the Ruth Institute, Bob Emrich of the Maine Jeremiah Project and Charla Bansley from Concerned Women for America - all of which were well-received.

Memorable quote: "By the time these [activists of the homosexual agenda] get finished redefining marriage, there will be nothing left but a goverment registry of friendships," Dr. Morse said after laying out the differences between why peope get married and the actual purpose of marriage.

Meanwhile, after an all-out call for homosexuals and gay rights activists from around the state, Equality Maine and other national gay rights groups which have been scrambling to organize counter rallies in opposition to the Marriage Tour were only able to turn out one lesbian couple who attended the rally silently and without any disruption.

Props to them, considering their organizers are dedicated to do what they can to derail our rallies.

Out of respect for them, per their request, I won't post any pictures that show their face. However, just look at the photo for a second. This coming from two members of a community that is all about 'pride'.

They didn't seem to be proud today but they were respectful and we held a short and civil conversation between the three of us. I would have enjoyed a more lengthly conversation with them but they didn't seem interested.

These two women are dressed in red - the color the same-sex marriage advocates dressed in during a press conference held by Equality Maine prior to the NOM Marriage rally. So they attended that event actively and then wanted to attend our event passively?

Caity, the women on the left, claims that they wanted to just "hear both sides" and didn't want their pictures taken. Seems to me if that was the case they would have left their red shirts home. They wear red because we wear white. So you have two red shirts in a sea of white shirts and they want to keep a low profile?

Next time you want to keep a low profile or don't want your picture taken at a public event - don't draw attention to yourselves. That way, you can actually hear both sides of the debate, as you claim you wanted, while not having your photo taken.

Let's compare that with some of the Marriage Tour supporters who attended the rally today. No hiding faces, no talk-to-the-hand's, no shame for standing up for what they believe in.

Now doesn't this look more like people who are proud of what they believe in? Proud to be standing up for something. There are many more photos of proud marriage defenders just like this.

The gentlemen on the left is a big Red Sox fan, by the way.

After the rally, we packed up and had lunch in downtown Augusta at the Riverfront Barbeque and Grille. Good service and good food  - we had a nice time. Tomorrow morning we are getting on the road early headed for our second stop - Manchester, New Hampshire.

READ MORE - Summer Marriage Tour kicks-off in Augusta

NOM Summer for Marriage team heads to Maine

I am blogging this post as we are driving out of Boston, MA headed for Augusta, ME for tomorrow's kick-off rally at noon for the Summer for Marriage Tour.

The National Organization for Marriage, the Ruth Institute and Protect Marriage: One Man, One Woman are all represented in this NOM van, which is following Brian Brown and his family, occupying the NOM RV I drove up from Atlanta.

Today we assembled all of our supplies and loaded them into the van and the trailer we are pulling. We've got t-shirts and pens and bumper stickers and all kinds of hand-outs we plan to be giving out at our rallies to our supporters. All that, of course, in addition to the technical equipment we rented for our speakers and for playing music.

We have just entered New Hampshire, where we will be returning to tomorrow for a rally in Manchester. We have spent the ride so far discussing tomorrow's rally, reading the hateful comments posted by our opponents on this and other blogs across the Internet. Never again can they claim that we hate them.

Just go and read the language and comments they've posted on this blog!

The truth of the matter is that the activist who slashed my tire in New Jersey is bad press for an otherwise 'protected' group of individuals who are painted as victims and innocent angels by the press. So, it is of no surprise that there are 100+ comments trying to discredit the legitimacy of my post.

They have gone so far as to claim that the puncture was self-inflicted in an attempt to gain publicity. This is no surprise. What they did is an embarressment to the homosexual community and they are doing whatever they can to distance themselves from it.

Anyway, we are about an hour and a half out of Augusta.

It is raining but rain will not stop the marriage tour!

READ MORE - NOM Summer for Marriage team heads to Maine