Of the November votes on gay couples' marriage rights, the Human Rights Campaign says in a new television ad that there is a “mandate for full equality.” The ad uses images of women's suffrage and Martin Luther King Jr.
Source: youtube.com
Invoking iconic imagery of women's suffrage and Martin Luther King Jr., the nation's largest LGBT group will begin airing a television ad on Sunday morning news shows highlighting this month's votes on marriage equality as momentum for further movement on the issue.
"Now, across our country, we're standing together for the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry the person they love," narrator Morgan Freeman says in the ad. "And, with historic victories for marriage, we've delivered a mandate for full equality. The wind is at our back, but our journey has just begun."
The ad will be running throughout the coming week, Human Rights Campaign vice president Fred Sainz told BuzzFeed.
HRC president Chad Griffin said in a statement, "This year proved to be a pivotal turning point in the movement for marriage equality and now we press onward with renewed vigor and public opinion squarely on our side. As we continue the march toward full equality in legislatures and the courts, it is crystal clear that the prospect of an equal future is no longer up for debate; the question now is how soon it will arrive."
The ad comes as the Supreme Court is due on Nov. 30 to consider whether it will hear cases in the coming year addressing whether the Defense of Marriage Act or California's Proposition 8 are constitutional.
The strong push on the marriage front comes even as some others are pressing for HRC to highlight other issues, including workplace protections, in the wake of November's elections.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban most private employers from discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender employees, remains unlikely to pass in Congress due to the House Republican leadership's opposition. Advocates have pressed President Obama to take a first step and ban federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT people by executive order. Obama declined to do so in April, but advocates — including Griffin — have said that such an order is a key ask from the White House.
From HRC's New National Television Ad:
