First No on Prop.
8 Spot Hits TV Throughout California

The No on Prop. 8 campaign to defeat the California ballot initiative against same-sex marriage unveiled its first television ad today. The spot, the campaign's first, was shown to the press Monday morning at the San Francisco office of Ogilvy Public Relations and subsequently posted to the official No on Prop. 8 website. The ad will air statewide.

The ad features Sam and Julia Thoron, a California couple married for 46 years. Together, they say, they've raised three children -- including a lesbian daughter. In the ad they urge Californians not to strip away the right of their daughter and thousands of other California couples to be married.

"Our daughter deserves to be treated in her life with the same dignity and respect as her two straight brothers," Sam Thoron told the media at Monday's press conference. "That includes the right that she now has to get married. That is why we are opposed to the proposition."

The website urges supporters of No on 8 to make a cash donation "to keep the ad, and our message, on the air as much as possible." A $125 donation goes to support the airing of the ad in Palm Springs during the NBC hit Heroes, while $2,500 pays for the ad to air twice during The Daily Show in San Francisco.

Although other organizations, like Proud Parenting -- which recently debuted an anti-Prop. 8 ad that features the children of gay parents -- have already had spots on the airwaves (and the Internet), this will be the No on Prop. 8 campaign's first official effort. The ad was paid for by No on Prop. 8 and Equality for All and also received major funding from Equality California and the Human Rights Campaign.

A recent California Field Poll showed that 55% of likely voters in the state opposed the proposition, which would rescind the state supreme court ruling making same-sex marriage legal in the state. Thirty-eight percent of voters are in favor of the measure. (The Advocate)