RHODE ISLAND: Christopher Plante

-- Executive Director, National Organization for Marriage of Rhode Island

-- NOM's point man in Washington state fight to stop marriage equality

Facts

-- Says children of gay parents are in a "tragic situation" and equated having gay parents to having divorced or even dead parents (see second video down on webpage)

-- Says gay couples who adopt “turn children into little teacup dogs -- it's an accessory to put in my purse" (see video from 4:35-5:16)

-- Said bills that assist domestic partners in making funeral arrangements for their late loved ones “serve simply as ‘Trojan Horses’ for homosexual-marriage”

-- Says "homosexual marriage tells me I'm an option to my daughter, no different from a sun roof" (beginning at 1:03:00)

-- Says gays can "change" and so they don't deserve civil rights (beginning at 1:04:00) 

-- Says gays are trying to "hijack" bullying concerns in order to promote same-sex marriage; claims "the bullying thing is a red herring" (at 1:07:00)

-- Admits he is also against same-sex adoption; believes children of gays are always lacking (beginning at 13:45)

-- UPDATE - Internal memos obtained by the Human Rights Campaign reveal that the National Organization for Marriage (with whom Plante is closely associated) was actively attempting to - in its own words - "drive a wedge between gays and blacks" and "provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing (black) spokesmen and women as bigots." A 2008-2009 Board Update also revealed that one of NOM's goals was "fanning the hostility" (p.12) between the LGBT community and the black community.