<p align=center><strong><em>Equally Blessed cites National Organization for Marriage&rsquo;s racially divisive tactics in letters to Dolan Anderson&nbsp;</em></strong></p> <p>April 4--<a href=http://equally-blessed.org/>Equally Blessed</a> a coalition of four Catholic justice organizations today called on the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus to publicly disassociate themselves and their organizations from the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).</p> <p>The group wrote to&nbsp;<a href=http://www.equally-blessed.org/node/28>Cardinal Timothy Dolan</a> Archbishop of New York and&nbsp;<a href=http://www.equally-blessed.org/node/29>Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson</a>&nbsp;after&nbsp;<a href=http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/328445/national-organization-for-marriage-memo.pdf>documents</a>&nbsp;unsealed in a court case in Maine revealed that in opposing marriage equality NOM sought to &ldquo;drive a wedge&rdquo; between the black and LGBT communities and the Latino and LGBT communities.</p> <p>&ldquo;Fostering hostility and hatred is something that violates the very fundamentals of our faith&rdquo; the group wrote to Dolan. &ldquo;Our Church stands for unity among all regardless of race or ethnicity. We should be promoting understanding love and the inherent dignity of all people.&rdquo;</p> <p>The U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has worked closely with NOM in opposing marriage equality in a number of states including the current campaign to reverse same-gender marriage legislation in the&nbsp;<a href=http://thewscc.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=81>state of Washington</a>. The Knights of Columbus donated more than $1.9 million to NOM between&nbsp;<a href=http://www.kofc.org/un/en/conv/2009/resources/contributions.pdf>2008</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=http://www.kofc.org/un/en/resources/conv/2010/charity.pdf>2009</a>&nbsp;alone according to the group&rsquo;s annual reports.</p> <p>In their letter to Anderson the group said: &ldquo;We believe that if all of the faithful Knights around the country knew that their leaders have spent millions of dollars fighting marriage equality rather than spending it on the social programs that the faithful Knights expect they would be outraged.&rdquo;</p> <p>The strategy memo was among a number of documents unsealed last week by a federal judge. It revealed that in addition to turning ethnic communities against he LGBT community NOM also sought to find children willing to speak out against their LGBT parents.&nbsp;</p> <p>&ldquo;A strategy that deliberately tries to divide families is shameful&rdquo; said<strong> Lourdes&nbsp;Rodriguez-Nogu&eacute;s president of DignityUSA</strong>. &ldquo;Being a lesbian makes me no less Cuban that I was before I came out no less Catholic no less a part of my family. Latino families want what is best for each of their members and know that anything that oppresses one of us oppresses all of us.&rdquo;</p> <p>In addition to calling upon Dolan and Anderson to publicly disassociate themselves and their organizations from NOM Equally Blessed is also launching a social media campaign: #CatholicNoToNOM to raise awareness of the NOM&rsquo;s tactics.</p> <p>&ldquo;We hear frequently that marriage equality would be detrimental to the family&rdquo; said Casey Lopata co-founder of Fortunate Families. &ldquo;But it is the National Organization for Marriage that is seeking to tear families apart.&rdquo;</p> <p>&nbsp;<em>Equally Blessed includes four organizations that have spent a combined 115 years working on behalf of LGBT people and their families:&nbsp;<a href=http://cta-usa.org/>Call To Action</a>&nbsp;<a href=http://www.dignityusa.org/>DignityUSA</a>&nbsp;<a href=http://www.fortunatefamilies.org/>Fortunate Families</a> and&nbsp;<a href=http://www.newwaysministry.org/>New Ways Ministry</a>.</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p align=center>###</p>