Yesterday afternoon, the notorious National Organization For Marriage asked Facebook users to submit the names of couples with inspiring marriages. Since our America is an America where same-sex couples do and are among the most eager to participate in the institution of marriage, it was no surprise to see that equality advocates were quick to submit some names. Among the advocates to get there early were the Human Rights Campaign (from its org. account), John Becker from the Bilerico Project, gay father and author Jason Galvez. Oh, and also GLAAD's very own Director of Communications, Seth Adam, whose comment in favor of his friends Cooper and Todd quickly rose to the very top of the pack, earning thirty-two thumbs up with the first hour alone.
Anti-gay group @NOMupdate wants to see couples that inspire you. Let’s show them! #lgbthttp://t.co/k5llZ7U61M
— Seth Adam (@sethbadam) December 9, 2014
Here is how the top comments looked as of 8pm Monday:
The last time I checked the page, around noon on Tuesday, Seth's comment had gone above to around 150 "likes." The other pro-equality comments were all doing nearly as well.
But what happens when you check the page now? Well, as you might have guessed, NOM has deleted all of the comments you see above. Even though Seth was clearly the favorite voice, and NOM hadn't made any clarification that only man/woman marriages counted and only like-minded Facebookers could play, whoever controls NOM's page just went ahead an deleted Seth and others' perfectly fair, perfectly kind-hearted contributions.
Seth also tells me that NOM has blocked him from the site so he can't even weigh in and ask what happened. This doesn't surprise me since I myself have been blocked from NOM's Facebook page for many years now. It doesn't matter that I, like Seth, always kept my words even-tempered and valid. In NOM World (don't visit; it's shrinking quickly), simply engaging in dialogue is considered grounds for deletion, blocking, and banning.
Let me remind you that this is the very organization that routinely claims GLAAD is out to silence debate. Like, this is something they do *ALL THE TIME*. For instance:
And yet NOM doesn't think GLAAD's Director of Communications, a gay man whose life is directly affected by NOM's sole agenda, has any right to speak? Even when he's doing nothing more than honoring a family in his own life?! In fact, GLAAD's Commentator Accountability Project does the opposite of silencing, but rather gives more attention to the word of those anti-LGBT activists.
Fair enough, NOM; just don't ever try to play this "GLAAD silences us" card again. Like so many of the ships in your ever-emptying harbor, this one has sailed.