Via Good as You we find out that the National Organization for Marriage has launched a petition drive to thank the Mormon Church for its deep involvement in the passage of Prop 8 and to declare solidarity with them:

We write firstly to express our deep gratitude to you and the entire LDS community for the large and impressive contributions of your church and its members in protecting marriage in California and Arizona. Anyone who participated in this process has come to admire the competence, diligence and moral courage that so many members of your faith community displayed as part of this coalition effort—as Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons, and people of other faith communities all came together to fight this great battle for marriage. But we write for an even more important purpose: to express our outrage at the vile and indecent attacks directed specifically and uniquely at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members because of your courage in standing up for marriage.

The best thing about this is the name they have chosen for their new effort – Above the Hate.com. Its name is especially ironic considering the list of those who rushed to add their signatures to the letter:

Maggie Gallagher Donald E. Wildmon James C. Dobson, Ph.D. Charles W. Colson Tony Perkins Paul Weyrich Dr. Gary Bauer Bishop Harry Jackson Richard Land Tom Minnery Ron Prentice John Stemberger Phil Burress Kelly Shackelford Regina Griggs Wendy Wright Janice Crouse, PhD

That’s right – the leaders of the professional anti-gay lobby are “rising above the hate” to thank the Mormon Church for helping them deny gays and lesbians their basic equality.