NY Marriage Opposition Unorganized

Despite Sunday's massive Hispanic evangelicals rally in NYC, the New York Times says that same-sex marriage opponents in the state are remarkably unorganized and underfunded.

“Frankly, the governor caught us all by surprise when he put this bill out there,” said Dennis Proust, communications director for the New York State Catholic Conference, the bishops’ political arm. “We weren’t expecting it.” Other groups that typically take the lead on conservative causes, like New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms and the Conservative Party of New York State, say they lack the resources to mount a broad media campaign. And the state does not have the large numbers of evangelical Christians and Mormons that have helped fuel movements to restrict marriage to heterosexual couples in other states, like California. “It’s been a little bit of a challenge in New York,” said Peter S. Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council, the Washington-based conservative advocacy group led by Tony Perkins. “The pro-family network in New York is not as well organized as it is in other states.”

Even just-installed Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who said some ugly things about same-sex marriage in his first interviews, now says he does not plan to enter the public debate.