The National Organization for Marriage was the first anti-LGBT organization to attempt to exploit last week’s shooting at the Family Research Council, with Brian Brown lashing out at the Southern Poverty Law Center for what he called its “incendiary rhetoric” of designating “hate groups.” Other organizations like the American Family Association and FRC itself followed suit. If that messaging strategy were not deplorable enough, NOM is now using the tragedy for fundraising purposes, according to an email Brown sent out today describing the shooting as a hate crime against Christians, though it has not been designated as such:

We must fight back and condemn violence against anyone. It has no place in civil society.

But we must also fight back against the violent and hateful tactics of intimidation being pursued every day by gay “marriage” thugs and activists. They will do whatever it takes to intimidate Christians and marriage supporters including harassing people at home and work.

The National Organization for Marriage is fighting back to defend marriage from gay activist bullies but I need your immediate contribution of $50, $100, or as much as you can give right now to fight back. [...]

P.S. We’re not going to allow gay activists to get away with attempted murder. And we’re not going to shut up so they can go about the business of redefining marriage. We’re going to fight, and we’re going to win. But we can only do this if you stand with us today. That’s why we need your immediate contribution of $50, $100, or as much as you can give right now to fight back for marriage.

The insult of the fundraising ask aside, NOM’s rhetoric has escalated to a dangerous level. The organization is committed to “fighting back” against a shooting? “Gay activists” and “gay ‘marriage’ thugs” are to blame for “attempted murder,” instead of one troubled individual acting alone? This is nothing short of inciting opponents of marriage equality to engage in their own violent backlash, then asking for donations as an alternative. The more NOM tries to claim that advocates for equality are the ones using “incendiary rhetoric,” the weaker its case becomes.

The Maryland State Board of Elections has finalized the wording for the state’s impending referendum on a recently passed same-sex marriage law. Appearing as Question 6, the referendum has been titled the “Civil Marriage Protection Act,” the name the bill had when passed by the legislature. It will read on the ballot as follows:

Establishes that Maryland’s civil marriage laws allow gay and lesbian couples to obtain a civil marriage license, provided they are not otherwise prohibited from marrying; protects clergy from having to perform any particular marriage ceremony in violation of their religious beliefs; affirms that each religious faith has exclusive control over its own theological doctrine regarding who may marry within that faith; and provides that religious organizations and certain related entities are not required to provide goods, services, or benefits to an individual related to the celebration or promotion of marriage in violation of their religious beliefs.

Marylanders for Marriage Equality praised the wording, calling it “accurate and straightforward” for the way it reflects the bill’s intent: “equality under the law and protecting religious freedom.” A poll earlier this month found the referendum passing with 54 percent of voters in support and only 40 percent opposed.

Former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R-WI)

With his primary win last Tuesday, four-term former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R-WI) will be the Republican nominee against Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D) for the open seat of retiring Sen. Herb Kohl (D). Unlike Baldwin, the nation’s first openly lesbian Member of Congress and a 100 percent supporter of LGBT equality, Thompson has opposed the LGBT community on several major issues.

Over his time as a Wisconsin state legislator (1967 to 1986), Governor (1987 to 2001), President George W. Bush’s Secretary of Health and Human Services (2001 to 2005), an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination (2008), and this Senate race:

1. Thompson ran for governor opposing his predecessor’s pioneering efforts to protect gay and lesbian people from discrimination. In 1983, then-Gov. Tony Earl (D) created a Council on Lesbian and Gay Issues. Thompson, in his successful 1986 campaign to succeed Earl, repeatedly pledged to eliminate the council. Dick Wagner, who co-chaired the council, told ThinkProgress that Thompson did not reauthorize the Council on Lesbian and Gay Issues but “did continue the Bicycle Coordinating Council.”

2. Thompson said it should be legal to fire someone for being LGBT — and then said it shouldn’t. During a 2007 Republican presidential primary debate, Thompson was asked whether employers who believe “homosexuality is immoral” should be allowed to fire gay employees. Thompson forcefully responded that “business people have to make their own determination” on whether to fire employees based on sexual orientation. A day later, he reversed himself, saying “I didn’t hear the question properly and I apologize. It’s not my position. There should be no discrimination in the workplace and I have never believed that.” Thompson later blamed his answer on a dead hearing aid, illness, and a urgent need to go to the bathroom. Indeed, back in 1981, then-Assemblyman Thompson voted against the Assembly version of the nation’s first statewide gay rights bill (he later voted to accept the Senate’s amended version in a largely uncontested vote).

3. Thompson opposes marriage equality and strongly supports DOMA. Earlier this month, he backed the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act, telling a Wisconsin TV station “I believe very strongly in the Defense of the Marriage Act [sic], that marriage is between one man and one woman. I support that. That’s the federal law.” While he expressed reservations about a federal constitutional amendment, he pledged to “defend the federal law – one man, one woman for marriage.” Thompson declined to join the bipartisan coalition of former governors who opposed Wisconsin’s 2006 state constitutional amendment against same-sex unions.

4. Thompson has proudly promoted his anti-LGBT backers. His campaign website endorsement list prominent features one of the nation’s most notorious anti-gay extremists — Fox News Channel host and Chick-fil-A appreciator former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR). Huckabee also appeared in a TV ad backing Huckabee in the primary and praising him for defending “our conservative values.”

5. Thompson lead the Bush administration’s failed “abstinence-only” programs. In 2001, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund gave Thompson an “F” for “throwing money into ineffective and discriminatory ‘abstinence-until-marriage’ sex education programs in the face of skyrocketing rates of HIV infection among young people.” In addition to being highly ineffective in general, pushing abstinence until marriage while simultaneously opposing allowing same-sex couples to marry at all has an especially damaging effect on LGBT youths.

Watch Thompson argue in favor of legal workplace discrimination:

Though Thompson has taken a few pro-equality positions over his more than 45 years in politics, he has all too often been on the wrong side of issues of LGBT rights. His election to the U.S. Senate would be a huge threat to LGBT people and families.

Brittney Leon and Terri-Ann Simonelli with their domestic partnership certificate (via the Las Vegas Review-Journal).

A same-sex couple in Nevada is raising awareness about the inequality couples experience without marriage after Spring Valley Hospital refused to recognize their relationship. Brittney Leon and Terri-Ann Simonelli have a domestic partnership, which under Nevada state law grants couples all the same rights as married couples. When Leon checked into the hospital last month because of complications in her pregnancy, the admissions officer told Simonelli she would have to secure power of attorney to be with her partner.

Leon ended up losing her baby, and Simonelli had to rely on the doctor for updates, spending long stretches of time without news on her partner’s condition and the fate of her family. This was despite the fact that the hospital had no hesitations about accepting Leon’s insurance, which is provided through Simonelli’s job. The Las Vegas Review-Journal attempted to get a comment from the hospital about the incident:

A woman who identified herself as public relations representative at Spring Valley Hospital told a Review-Journal reporter in a phone interview that the hospital policy requires gay couples have power of attorney in order to make medical decisions for each other .

When asked if she was aware of Nevada’s domestic partnership law, she accused the reporter of bias and hung up the telephone.

Over two years ago, President Obama ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a rule that would prevent hospitals from denying visitation privileges to the partners of gays and lesbians. It’s unclear whether the power-of-attorney requirement violates that memorandum — though it obviously discriminates against same-sex couples — or whether it is indicative of how little authority the new rule has.

Leon and Simonelli have decided not to file a complaint, but their story is an important reminder of how same-sex couples are treated as second-class citizens. Even though they hypothetically have all of the same rights under the state’s domestic partnership law, they were still treated in an incredibly crass way in a time of emergency and heightened emotional stress.