Profiles NOM’s Brian Brown

Newsweek says that Brian Brown, the president of the antigay National Organization for Marriage, is "leading the fight against gay marriage. And succeeding."

At 36, Brown leads an organization that has increased its budget from $500,000 in 2007 to $13 million today. Newsweek, which calls him "the nation's fiercest crusader against gay marriage," said his hate mail includes death threats from opponents.

"A big reason for their frustration is that Brown is succeeding," reports Newsweek. "His National Organization for Marriage played a key role in financing the Nov. 2 ouster of three Iowa Supreme Court justices who ruled to legalize same-sex marriage there in 2009. NOM was also a major force in voter initiatives that rolled back gay marriage in Maine and California, contributing $1.4 million and $1.8 million, respectively, to those campaigns. 'We're sending a strong message to judges, as did our wins in Maine and California, not to be immune to what is happening politically or too far ahead of public opinion,' Brown says. The Iowa victory comes at a critical moment in his fight: on Dec. 6 a federal appeals court in California is set to hear arguments in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, which contests the constitutionality of the state's anti-gay-marriage amendment, Proposition 8."

Read the profile here. Perspectives from marriage equality advocates like Freedom to Marry's Evan Wolfson are included.