The National Organization for Marriage’s Maggie Gallagher made her first public appearance today on MSNBC with Thomas Roberts, four days after confidential memos detailing NOM’s race-wedging tactics were released. In her appearance, she continued NOM’s incredulous PR strategy of continuing to spotlight people of color who oppose marriage equality and attempting to win their favor by defending them from charges of bigotry:

GALLAGHER: It’s insulting to suggest that these African-American or Latino leaders are standing up because NOM is manipulating them. Obviously the only reason anyone stands up for marriage at this point in this culture is out of principle because we believe it’s a good thing.[...]

We didn’t cause or create this, and frankly if we could get together with the gay community, and take the idea that it’s bigoted or discriminatory to stand up for marriage off the table for black people or for white people, we’d be happy to do it.[...]

I don’t apologize for any [of the projects listed in the memos]. Although, I don’t like the suggestion that somehow we have the power to make gay marriage advocates call other people bigots or haters. We don’t, we wish they would stop. Or that we have the power to make African American or Latino Democrats do anything. We’re really grateful and respect the leadership that they’ve shone for the values that they hold dear and that we share.

This is NOM “fanning the hostility” between blacks and gays exactly as described in the strategic documents.

Debating Gallagher was openly gay Republican presidential candidate Fred Karger, who has hounded NOM for attempting to circumvent state finance disclosure laws. It was just such an investigation into NOM’s operation in Maine that led to the release of these internal documents. When Gallagher tried to claim that the controversy makes the organization sound like it’s “way too big for our britches,” Karger and Roberts both pointed out that NOM continues to inject millions of dollars into anti-equality campaigns across the country. Watch it:

Republican presidential hopeful Fred Karger is known for the fact that he’s gay, and likewise, he has some progressive positions on social issues. Karger owns his gay identity, and has used it to help people remember who he is. For better or worse, his media coverage has largely been about this aspect of his candidacy. On the rare occasion that he is interviewed about other issues like the economy or health care, he sounds like quite the legitimate Republican candidate. But despite his success at achieving poll numbers comparable to other contenders like Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman, and Newt Gingrich, he was excluded from the recent Fox News debate and is now being prevented from participating in the California state GOP convention next month.

But as conservatives argue that his exclusion has nothing to do with his sexuality, they manage to prove the very opposite. Jimmy LaSalvia of the gay Republican group GOProud epitomized this point as he tried to downplay Karger’s legitimacy as a candidate:

LASALVIA: Fred Karger is not a credible candidate. I would love for there to be an openly gay, credible candidate for president who was out there making a case for why they would be better than Barack Obama. Unfortunately, Fred Karger is playing a stunt, and his stunt has run its course. His whole schtick is … running around the country with a rainbow flag, saying ‘I’m the gay guy.” But he hasn’t made a case about why he should be president of the United States.

This is a catch-22 for the tokenized Karger: being “the gay Republican presidential candidate” has helped him gain notoriety, but now it seems to be the only aspect of his campaign conservatives are willing to mention. They dismiss him as “just the gay guy,” but simultaneously deny him any opportunity to engage with the other candidates about other issues in his platform. It’s political homophobia in action. Conservatives say they aren’t discriminating against him — he’s just not a “credible” candidate. But they don’t hesitate to say they think he’s not credible because he’s gay. If that’s not the reason he continually has to fight to be included in debates and conventions, what is?

Maybe it’s unrealistic for Fred Karger to win the Republican primary or beat President Obama in 2012, but he is surely not the only candidate who fits that description. We need to call out anti-gay discrimination when we see it, and that’s exactly what Karger is facing in his candidacy.