Is Web Smear of National Organization for Marriage Legally Actionable?

Aggressive tactics used to attack supporters of traditional marriage are shocking, but are they legal?

That’s the question many are asking with regard to high-profile hits on traditional marriage supporters by so-called “gay rights advocates.”

In a June 9th article in The Advocate (“Anti-equality Domain Linked to KKK“), writer William McGuinness reports that Theodore Trentman, a self-described Web activist, is conducting an Internet smear campaign against the nation’s top marriage group, The National Organization for Marriage. According to the article, Trentman purchased the Web domain nationalorganizationformarriage.com but nefariously set the URL to redirect Web surfers to KKK.com, a Ku Klux Klan site.

The Advocate states that Mr. Trentman owns approximately 16 domain names, which he uses to similarly malign various groups. Trentman is quoted as saying that he “buys names that he feels members of the gay community should own.” 

But why would Trentman, a downtown lofts owner at Los Angeles-based LoftLivingLA.com, carry out underhanded Web-based attacks on the National Organization for Marriage? The Advocate reports:

Theodore Trentman, the domain’s owner and a self-described Web advocate, said it’s no accident. Trentman bought the domain name on April 8, 2009, because he said the routing brought viewers to a closer representation of the certified 501(c)(4) nonprofit.

…Trentman said his decision to associate the KKK with the NOM came down to a personal feeling that the organization was representing a philosophy similar to the Knights Party — something he felt obligated to call out. “I think the National Organization for Marriage hosts a different message than they think they do,” Trentman said. “The true message is one of hate, division, and discrimination.”

The bait-and-switch URL trick has shown up at YouTube recently, where a video falsely claiming to be from the National Organization for Marriage , and posted by user “NationForMarraige” (note the misspelling), urges viewers to visit the group’s “new website.”  (See video documenting the NOM impostor.)  In a similar way reported in The Advocate, viewers who clicked on the link prior to June 20th were routed to the KKK.com Klan site. As of June 20th, the domain name began forwarding visitors to “Kindness, Kudos, and Kourage, the New KKKs of Living” — a Trent Studios page featuring Mr. Trentman’s music video productions, including the LOGO No.1 video of 2007, “This Is Love,” by Jason and Demarco.

Information reported in The Advocate aligns with registrant data at whois.domaintools.com, which says the domain name is registered by “Theodore Trentman” of  Trent Studios in Los Angeles, California. The address listed with the domain registrar is also the address of Los Angeles firm LoftLivingLA (loftlivingla.com).