Joseph Backholm carrying one of the boxes of petitions that challenged Washington's marriage equality law.

Focus on the Family has posted a wound-licking round-up of its losses in last week’s election, highlighting the marriage equality fights in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, and Washington. While regurgitating the National Organization for Marriage’s claim that they were simply outspent, Focus also claims that conservatives lost because liberal voters are “unchurched” and thus a threat to children:

In addition to the financial mismatch, those states are also among the most unchurched in the nation—reflecting a discrepancy in the way voters there regard marriage compared to other areas of the country.

“This debate does not end here, but it’s unfortunate that a majority of our state has concluded that the institution of marriage exists solely to ratify the emotional connection of adults,” said Joseph Backholm, executive director of the Family Policy Institute of Washington. “As is always the case when adults decide they’re the most important people in the world, it’s the kids that will lose.”

It’s true that the number of Americans who don’t identify with a religious affiliation is growing, and the narrow view of “churching” that conservative Christians dictate may just be one of the reasons why. The so-called “moral majority” is no longer the majority, and is hardly moral. What’s in the best interest of kids is ensuring that their families have the proper legal securities, not spreading fears that their gay parents are inherently abusive.

The National Organization for Marriage’s Ruth Institute is promoting the idea that being gay is as “harmful” as smoking. In a crosspost on its blog, the Ruth Institute asks, “How much worse do the risks of gay sex have to be before it rates the same public health warnings as smoking?” Here’s an excerpt from the full article:

Instead of discouraging homosexual behavior as smoking is discouraged, key elements of American society have been promoting homosexuality as a viable and safe option compared with heterosexuality. Gay organizations and gay influence in the government, the media, the mental health associations, academia, and the teachers’ union have all played significant roles in America’s normalization of homosexuality. All too often, gay political ideals have been given priority over the physical and mental health of sexually confused youth. In addition, family therapy advances in the prevention of homosexuality have been marginalized to the extent that the general public is not even aware that they exist.

The dog whistle message of this comparison is that homosexuality is inherently disordered — that being gay is automatically going to cause disease. Certainly, the author’s use of “sexually confused youth” indicates that he does not believe gay identities are a natural part of human diversity, choosing instead to only focus on “homosexual behavior.” Of course, the issue at stake is safe sex, which is a problem among all people who are sexually active, regardless of their sexual orientation. It’s ironic that groups like NOM (or infamously, Iowa’s The FAMiLY Leader) make these offensive comparisons as part a campaign against allowing same-sex couples to marry while simultaneously praising marriage for promoting family stability. If conservatives actually cared about the health of the LGBT community, they would advocate against the spread of HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections instead of advocating against the people who might contract them.

GLAAD and the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC) are commemorating Transgender Awareness Week with a series of new videos from their “I AM: Trans People Speak” series. In the clips, trans Americans discuss their experiences being trans, as well as many of the other aspects of their identities that define them. MTPC’s Gunner Scott explains the importance of the campaign:

SCOTT: By providing a place for transgender people, family members and our allies to share their stories, we hope to empower our community and the general public to advocate for transgender equality and move the culture towards acceptance of transgender youth and adults. With GLAAD’s leadership on this project, we will be educating the public and be a resource to the mainstream media about the reality of transgender peoples’ lives and the unique challenges they face due to pervasive bias, stereotypes and misunderstanding.

Watch the four videos, featuring Colby College professor Jennifer Finney Boylan, actress Laverne Cox, performance poet Kit Yan, and Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund attorney Noah Lewis:

The National Organization for Marriage is sticking with its belief that the country stands opposed to marriage equality, regardless of its losses last week or the very clear polling trend over the past two years showing a majority of the country supports the freedom to marry. In an interview on PBS NewsHour, NOM’s cultural director Thomas Peters argued to moderator Ray Suarez that NOM will always be right and never back down — no matter how minds may change — and that the group is actually optimistic moving forward:

SUAREZ: Aren’t you standing on shifting sand? Given the momentum of the polls, given the momentum of the legal challenges, the losses in various federal appellate courts, the changes in various state laws, maybe you’ll win tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, but are you fighting against an inevitability?

PETERS: No, for two important reasons. First of all, I believe in the truth of my pro-marriage views, just as the other side does, and people who have those deep-seated convictions don’t look at the changing tides wherever they may be. They fight for what’s true and what’s right. Second of all, I think it’s amazing with all of the cultural forces tying to redefine marriage that we’re still here in 2012 just barely seeing some footholds gained in deep blue states. I think the future of the marriage movement is bright and ultimately I don’t believe history moves in one direction.

Watch it:

NOM has been repeatedly claiming that it only lost because it was outspent, but Peters’ claims ignore the reality of the situation. Though anti-gay groups may ignore changing tides, LGBT groups pay very close attention, which is why they shifted messaging tactics this year and had more success as a result. NOM relied on its same-old scare tactics, which local newspapers significantly debunked — not so dependent a “truth” as Peter claims.

Plenty of evidence suggests NOM is anything but optimistic. They plan to appeal more to people’s faith, because their “traditional marriage” arguments are not sufficing. They are going to blackmail equality-supporting companies by stoking anti-gay hostilities in Middle East countries. The group has also admitted that most of its financial support is “superficial” and that they are struggling to attract more grassroots support. These tactics all point to desperation, not optimism. That’s not to say there will never be another setback for equality, but NOM is clearly losing the so-called “culture war,” whatever its skewed polling and stubborn-minded spokespeople might suggest.