Current voice of NH marriage repeal marks twenty year 'straight pride' anniversary

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12/22/2011

by Jeremy Hooper

Yesterday I told you that Ted Maravelias, the man behind NHMarriage.org and its NH Family PAC parent, has ties to the rabidly anti-gay, SPLC-designated hate group MassResistance. Now a tipster sends me yet another interesting little tidbit about Mr. Maravelias.

This one comes from the archives. Turns out that back in the early '90s, while a student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Mr. Maravelias organized a "straight pride" rally, a thoroughly hostile effort to force gay into the closet:

March 10, 1991:
The founder of the "straight pride" rally, Theodore G. Maravelias, spoke briefly at the rally, saying the gay rights law enacted last year in Massachusetts and other gay rights actions were distracting attention from more important issues, like the decline of the traditional family.

"They don't want rights, they want to force a sexuality on me," said Mr. Maravelias, a senior in political science from Danvers, Mass. "Keep it in the closet!"
Campus Life: Massachusetts; Angry Gay Groups Drown Out Rally By Conservatives [NY Times]
(H/t: Steve Perry)

Twenty years later, and Mr. Maravelias is in the Live Free or Die State, trying to force marriage equality into the trash bin. NH's top dog "pro-family" group and major NOM ally, Cornerstone Policy Research, is directing supporters to Mr. Maravelias' efforts (see links towards the end of this pitch letter). All of these rights-stripping groups are working together, accusing NH's loving same-sex couples of forcing their sexuality on proud straight people via the state's current marriage law.

So does it matter that twenty years ago, Mr. Maravelias admitted his intent went well beyond marriage and instead expanded to the overall closeting of gay people? Well, I'd say it certainly raises a few valid questions for those of us working to preserve New Hampshire's fairly enacted marriage law. Questions like: "Why should I believe you only want to stop at futzing with my marriage when you've admitted t's far more than just my wedding ring you'd like to tuck away in a dark closet?!"

*The questions are even more pertinent when you consider that CPR -- who, again, just pushed Mr. Maravelias' efforts in an organizational e-blast -- has been pushing so-called "ex-gay" therapy for years now: