Posted by
Playful Walrus on Monday, August 18, 2008 7:31:27 PM
In a heavy-handed appeal to emotion, and a deliberate attempt to skirt the law, television ads are running in California that show a bride having trouble walking down the aisle to marry her groom, and the tag line is, “What if you couldn’t marry the person you love?” Interesting that they use the scenario of a bride and a groom to try to convince us that two people of the same sex should also be able to get marriage licenses, just like a bide and groom do.
I could think of some great parody versions – with a brother and a sister, or a bride walking down the aisle to two grooms, or to a man who is already married. The other side scoffs at such a thing. Interesting that these people agree with us that only some people should be able to marry the person they love.
You can see the ad via the link. Los Angeles Times staff writer Dan Morain reports.
But according to its producers, the television spot is not about getting votes in the election. They say that the nonprofit corporation that put up millions of dollars to air it is simply trying to encourage tolerance of same-sex marriage.
Allowing people to have there ceremonies and live together is tolerance. It is intolerance to force the rest of us to strip “bride” and “groom” from state-issued marriage licenses. We are not being shown tolerance.
Some experts believe that the ad's producer, Let California Ring, is skirting federal tax law, which restricts political campaigning by nonprofit organizations with tax-exempt status. By using such an entity, backers also avoid a fundamental requirement of state campaign finance law -- public disclosure of donors' identities.
Very interesting, don’t you think?
Attorney Evan Wolfson of the New York group, Freedom to Marry, and a board member of Let California Ring, disagreed.
"Of course, it has a viewpoint," he said of the commercial. "But it is not a political viewpoint."
Sure it is. Gay couples have had marriage ceremonies for many years now. Nobody is stopping them. This is in direct reference to a state political issue – marriage licensing.
The ad, he said, "is untethered to any political moment, election year, political decision or vote. It is all about asking people how they would feel if they or their loved ones couldn't marry who they love."
Again, people like this are full of it. They scoff when anyone suggests that a brother and sister should also be granted a marriage license because they “love” each other.
But Schubert said his campaign lawyers had reviewed the spot and concluded that it would probably squeak by as legal.
Of course it will! The judges in California are the same ones who think they know better than every society ever when it comes to marriage!
Several of the donors named by the institution as its supporters are also major donors to the campaign against Proposition 8.
Philanthropist and technology entrepreneur David Bohnett said he donated $500,000 to air the Let California Ring ad and helped fund the group in the past.
And…
James C. Hormel, former ambassador to Luxembourg, donated between $250,000 and $499,000 to Let California Ring. Hormel has given $150,000 to fight Proposition 8.
Two organizations that have political action arms -- the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and Human Rights Campaign -- also have given between $250,000 and $499,000 to Equality California Institute. The two groups have spent a combined amount of more than $500,000 to defeat the initiative.
Just so that you know.