The national same-sex marriage advocacy group Freedom to Marry will air a series of television ads in Texas this week, with the aim to personalize the issue ahead of an important federal hearing Friday.
The $100,000 TV buy will air Sunday and Monday, just days before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is slated to hear arguments in a case challenging Texas’ constitutional ban on gay marriage.
The ads, which feature gay and lesbian Texans talking about their desire to marry, will air in eight of Texas’ 20 markets including Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Beaumont, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Laredo, the Rio Grande Valley, Waco and Wichita Falls.
In the ad slated to run in the Dallas area, Fort Worth Police Officers express their desire that their gay colleague, Chris Gorrie, soon has the ability to marry his partner.
“Texans believe in freedom and liberty, and part of that is being able to marry who you love,” Fort Worth Police Department Neighborhood Police Officer Jay Doshi says of his colleague. “So Chris should be able to marry whoever he loves.”
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Freedom to Marry has aired similar ads in other states ahead of prominent court hearings there. The Texas ads are part of the group’s recently-launched statewide advocacy campaign, which also features town hall meetings and efforts to bring together young conservatives around the issue.
See here for the background on Texas for Marriage, the aforementioned statewide advocacy campaign. Here’s the ad in question:
As I understand it, this is the only ad currently set for broadcast, but dozens of couples (and allies) have been profiled on the Texas for Marriage website and Facebook page, so visit those for more. I’m glad to see this and I hope they get a great response to this campaign. Trail Blazers and Hair Balls have more.