This is so typical. One of the legal teams that is headed to the Supreme Court in April to argue in favor of marriage equality is strapped for cash, and the national LGBT groups are too busy second-guessing the case and fundraising off of it to provide a little backing. Here's the big picture in a nutshell
from Steve Friess:
An historic triumph for gay marriage may be within reach this spring on the biggest possible stage, but attorney Dana Nessel’s chief frustration at the moment is actually not anti-gay opponents. Rather, she’s taking aim at an unlikely target: the biggest, richest civil rights and gay rights organizations, all of which have left her team to beg and scrape for the estimated $1 million they need to litigate at the Supreme Court. “Nobody even wanted us to file this case, they all tried to stop us, and even now they’re not helping much,” she says tartly. “The great irony is, we’re the ones going to the Supreme Court.”
Finger pointing and jockeying for credit isn't anything new in the LGBT movement—especially when it comes to same-sex marriage cases. And I don't agree with every point that's made in this article. But for goodness sakes, let's get the people who are arguing these cases the resources they need.
The only non-profit committed to helping the group, the National Marriage Challenge, currently has about $47,000 in its bank account, a quarter of which is already owed for past court costs and other expenses, NMC treasurer Mary Barr says.
Nessel has gone hat in hand to local groups like Equality Michigan and national groups like Human Rights Campaign since the case first began in 2011, but her pleas have mostly been ignored.
“Per usual, I just had a big potential donor ask ‘Why aren't any of the big orgs supporting you?’ ” she wrote Monday, via e-mail.
Just to put things in perspective: Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, was
paid $507,000 in 2014.
Please read below the fold for more on this story.
Thu Jan 29, 2015 at 10:14 AM PT: UPDATE: The following statement was sent to me by Carole Stanyar, who is co-counsel on the Michigan case along with Dana Nessel, Kenneth Mogill, Robert Sadler, and Mary Bonauto.
Carole Stanyar: "While this article is mostly accurate in detailing our experience with the civil rights and gay organizations, it grossly understates the contributions of both GLAD and Lambda Legal. Mary Bonauto (GLAD) helped us the moment we asked her and has never stopped helping us. She is our co-counsel and deserves to be acknowledged. Throughout the case, Lambda has provided a great deal of assistance to us also. They helped us -- any time we asked -- to locate trial witnesses, to garner resources and research from around the country, and to help fund one of our expert witnesses (a $13,000 contribution). I was aware of a 'national strategy' to avoid the states in the Sixth Circuit, however, I don't recall either GLAD or Lambda ever discouraging us from filing or pursuing this lawsuit."
Thu Jan 29, 2015 at 4:43 PM PT: UPDATE 2: I have also interviewed Camilla Taylor, director of Lambda Legal's Marriage Project, and that interview can be found here.
Nessel didn't just seek out this case looking for the glory of making Supreme Court history. In fact, the case she originally filed on behalf of Michigan residents April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse—who are raising four adopted children—took aim at the state's ban on second-parent adoption by same-sex couples. The federal district judge handling the case essentially advised Nessel to refile the case as a challenge to the state's marriage ban. So that's what she did.
If you're looking for a voice of reason, here it is.
“This is the case of our lifetime,” said Bob Witeck, a public-relations strategist who has worked with Human Rights Campaign and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association, and advises American Airlines on their gay marketing outreach. “If others are raising large chunks of money and they’re not feeding and servicing the lawyers and the litigants in these cases, what are we giving it to?"
And here's what the 800-pound gorillas in the room had to say for themselves.
Nobody from the ACLU or the Human Rights Campaign replied to requests for comment.
At least Lambda Legal had the decency to respond to the inquiry.