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Oct 9, 2007 7:14 am US/Pacific
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Gay Marriage Push: Special Rings Given To Couples
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS) ―
Advocates for same-sex marriage are launching an ad campaign to try and change the stance of Californians who oppose allowing gay couples to wed.
The campaign comes as Governor Schwarzenegger plans to veto a bill legalizing such marriages.
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View the ring Let California Ring website Traditional Values Action Page_________________
The ad, from the gay-marriage group Equality California, is unusual because it doesn't feature gay people. We see a bride at a traditional wedding, meeting one obstacle after another on her way to the altar.
Finally, a tag line reads, 'what if you couldn't marry the person you love? Every day gay and lesbian couples are prevented from marrying.'
Geoff Kors runs Equality California, which will start running the ad this week in major media markets all over California.
"It's less about showing lesbian and gay people which we've done in a lot of contexts, but actually putting straight people in our shoes, to make them emotionally feel what it would be like to be prevented from marrying the person they are now married to, or the person they hope to marry," said Kors.
He says the ad campaign was in the works long before the State Legislature recently passed gay marriage. The Governor is expected to veto that for a second time.
We showed the ad to a group opposed to gay marriage, Catholics for the Common Good, based in Daly City.
"It's purely emotional, and it really misrepresents what marriage is all about," said Catholics for Common Good member William B. May. "What is the public interest in regulating emotional relationships between people? The real purpose of marriage is to build a foundation with a mother and a father for children."
But it's the people in the middle who the campaign is really aimed at.
At the Manor Coffee Shop in San Francisco's West Portal neighborhood, we showed the ad to Katina Foster, who has been undecided about gay marriage.
"I thought the commercial was well done," said Foster. "It brings the point across, but I still haven't made up my mind one way or the other."
The commercials are aimed at swinging a large number of undecided voters in favor of gay marriage. Support for "Marriage Equality" has grown steadily in California, with about 43 percent approving in recent Field Poll.
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