Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Human Rights Campaign on NOM’s bigotry mastermind:
Public filings show that he has netted nearly $3 million this year for his work in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Washington State. The profits go to Schubert’s company, Mission Public Affairs. Schubert collected $958,594 for his anti-equality work in North Carolina earlier this year. In the four marriage ballot states, Schubert has collected $967,567.88 in Washington; $492,680 in Maryland; $303,307.69 in Minnesota; and $200,043.46 in Maine. While these funds are likely used to pay for advertising, it’s unclear what percentage is lining Schubert’s pockets.
“Frank Schubert is making a lucrative living off of promoting discrimination against LGBT Americans,” said HRC Vice President of Communications Fred Sainz. “Let me be clear: the National Organization for Marriage is advancing an extremist agenda against LGBT people. Frank Schubert is making millions of dollars by intentionally misleading voters about NOM’s true mission. As he gets richer, hundreds of thousands of LGBT Americans face economic hardship, enormous obstacles in starting families, and an inability to marry the person they love – all because of Schubert’s lies.”
RELATED: Yesterday Michelangelo Signorile interviewed Schubert and reports that he “crumbled” under questioning about his anti-gay campaigns.
Schubert seemed to crumble when I played a clip of Marc Mutty, his campaign manager in Maine in 2009, admitting in the new documentary Question One that the campaign had used hyperbole and engaged in distortions and untruths (and saying that he was worried that he would be remembered for that ugly campaign). Schubert responded to me by oddly distancing himself from the campaign while also saying that Mutty was “misrecalling” events.
And Schubert had no answer to the question of why he isn’t trying to stop gay adoption, not gay marriage, if he believes children are better off with heterosexual parents. Maine, for example, allows two-parent adoptions by gay and lesbian couples, so keeping same-sex marriages unrecognized there will not prevent children from being raised in homes with two gay parents. Schubert couldn’t answer that because his modus operandi is to convince others (and himself), through his ads and campaigns, that they can be against same-sex marriage but still be supportive of gay people, including their right to adopt. And that is a complete contradiction.
Click over to HuffPo for audio and rest of Signorile’s interview with Schubert.