Maggie Gallagher is an anti-LGBTQ pundit and president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, which advocates a hard-line conservative agenda on marriage, sex, divorce law, and pregnancy. She is also well-known as a co-founder of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM).
Gallagher has said, commenting on federal judge ruling Proposition 8 unconstitutional, “The case for gay marriage is ultimately rooted in a rejection of common sense and core ideas about the natural family, including that children need a mother and father.” She believes the mainstream media gives same-sex marriage advocates a pass and thinks polls showing increased support for marriage equality are inaccurate. “I don’t believe those polls. One thing that is happening is that people are afraid to say what they really think about marriage,” she said in an interview.”
In 2007, Gallagher co-founded the National Organization for Marriage, a nonprofit that she describes as “fighting to protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it.” The organization operates nationally to oppose gay marriage, especially when pro and anti state legislation marriage bills are on the ballot. NOM has ties to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon), Focus on the Family, and the Knights of Columbus—all organizations with anti-LGBTQ stances. In 2012, she stepped down from the board at NOM. She currently serves as a senior fellow with the American Principles Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the fundamental principles on which the U.S. was founded.
Gallagher has said that marriage is primarily for reproduction and child rearing and that homosexual men and women should not raise children. She has also said, “Polygamy is not worse than gay marriage, it is better. At least polygamy, for all its ugly defects, is an attempt to secure stable mother-father families for children.” Because Gallagher believes heterosexual marriage is the pillar of democratic civilization, she often links same-sex marriage with social disorder and has not hesitated to connect same-sex marriage with the end of Western civilization.
Update 10/14/13:
Gallagher was recently quoted on theamericanconservative.com, giving a statement where she appeared to acknowledge that the Right will ultimately lose their fight against marriage equality.
This profile is part of a series on key anti-LGBTQ opponents adapted from Political Research Associates’ Resisting the Rainbow report.