More Bad News for Nom - Aug 12 marriage news watch

Marriages continue in Pennsylvania, but the Governor has filed suit to stop them. We'll have the latest from that state, plus civil actions in Tennessee, new data from Hawaii, and more bad news for the National Organization for Marriage. At the American Foundation for Equal Rights, I'm Matt Baume, and welcome to Marriage News Watch for August 12, 2013. We hit a milestone late last week: Pennsylvania's Montgomery County has now issued one hundred marriages licenses to gay and lesbian couples. And there's no end in sight, with marriages likely to continue for at least another week. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has sued the County Register of Wills, but for now it looks like they'll be able to continue issuing the licenses while the case is considered. It's anyone's guess how this will land. The court could eventually invalidate all those marriages. Or we could get a major advance towards the legalization of marriage equality in yet another state. We're also seeing an advancing legal strategy to the south, in Tennessee. Last week two couples tried -- and of course, failed -- to obtain legal recognition for their relationships. Now that they've been denied, the Tennessee Equality Project can move forward with legal action. Although they haven't announced a lawsuit yet, TEP is holding Marriage Equality Day rallies across the state on August 30 and 31. Visit TNEqualityProject.com for more info. It's been a bad couple of months for The National Organization for Marriage, and now they're under investigation for campaign finance issues yet again. This time it's in Iowa, where NOM failed to disclose donors to a campaign to unseat every judge on the state Supreme Court. For its part, NOM says that they don't have to disclose donors who gave money via email and phone calls. But the Executive Director of the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board called that "absolutely false." And we have another state poll to feel good about this week. A Hawaii survey shows support steady in the mid-50s, with opposition dropping to the low 30s. That's the lowest observed point yet, but the soonest we could see a marriage bill in Hawaii is 2014. We'll be keeping a close eye on all these states. Subscribe here on YouTube and at AFER.org for breaking alerts and ways to get involved. At the American Foundation for Equal Rights, I'm Matt Baume. See you next week.