Leave a Comment Gregory in Salt Lake City
Anti-marriage equality side debuts first ad in Maryland
October 9, 2012
By Jacob Combs
The Maryland Marriage Alliance, which is opposing Question 6, the ballot initiative that would bring full marriage equality to Maryland, released its first ad of the campaign season yesterday. Called “Marriage Is More,” the ad features the following voiceover (via Towleroad):
“Marriage, the union of a man and a woman, has served society well for thousands of years. Marriage is more than what adults want for themselves. It’s also about the next generation. Marriage provides children the best chance of being raised by a mother and father. While death and divorce too often prevent it, children do best when raised by their married mom and dad. Everyone is entitled to love and respect, but nobody is entitled to redefine marriage. Vote against Question 6.”
Over at Good As You, Jeremy Hooper has a great wry post called “How to make a Maryland marriage ad (in 8 easy stock video purchases), showing that the great majority of the clips in the ad come from the stock photo and video site iStockphoto. Not too much creativity at the Marriage Alliance, apparently.
Marylanders for Marriage Equality, the group campaigning to pass Question 6 (in terms of precise ballot language, it’s a vote FOR Question 6 that is a vote for marriage equality), plans to air its first ad on local TV stations tomorrow. The campaign has purchased over $550,000 of ad time in Baltimore and D.C. stations from now until election day.
“We’ve seen the polls tightening in the public numbers over the last week,” Marylanders for Marriage Equality campaign director Josh Levin told the Washington Blade. “That’s why it’s so important for us to get out on the air and get the message out there. We need to get the message to as many people as possible. That’s what we’ve been asking our supporters to do.”
A Baltimore Sun poll released on September 29 showed 49 percent support for Question 6 and 39 percent opposition. Another poll, conducted by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies and released just a few days before the Sun poll, showed 51 percent support for the marriage equality measure and 43 percent opposition, with six percent undecided.
At an October fundraiser in D.C., Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who supports Question 6, said that the campaign still needs to raise $1 million before election day. That’s a significant improvement from what he told bloggers and reporters during a September 24 conference call (which I attended), when the number was $2 million.
You can watch the Maryland Marriage Alliance’s anti-Question 6 video below.
Once you’ve done that, take a look at this great new video out of Minnesota from the marriage equality website The Four 2012.
Having technical problems? E-mail equalityontrial AT couragecampaign DOT org for assistance!
12 Comments Leave a Comment
1.
Steve | October 9, 2012 at 9:17 am
"nobody is entitled to redefine marriage"
Every time I see this (and it seems to be a big "theme" this time around), I want to ask…
Why not? Who *says* who is "entitled" to redefine marriage or not? Society can redefine any institution it wants to, any time it wants to.
This is just another attempt at rewriting history…marriage used to be about property, and treated women like bargaining chips. "Redefine" marriage…ha!
2.
Seth from Maryland | October 9, 2012 at 9:39 am
NAACP launches adverts supporting equal marriage
Tuesday will launch a series of radio adverts urging voters to support marriage equality for same-sex couples. It was a historic decision by the NAACP, an organization that has been a voice for promoting equality and civil rights for over 100 years.
NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous said of the endorsementFeatured in the adverts is former NAACP national chairman Julian Bond, who says voting for equal marriage is “the right thing to do. He also believes equal marriage is not just a religious issue since many blacks who oppose same-sex marriage view it as more of a religious issue rather than a civil rights issue. In fact a Pew Forum poll found that 62 percent of black Protestants opposed gay marriage. Bond addresses this in the adverts by saying:
The adverts will air in Baltimore and Washington and have been timed to air a month ahead of the vote on the issue http://www.examiner.com/article/marriage-equality…
3.
Cat | October 9, 2012 at 10:05 am
I agree. It's a string of words, trying to be true just because it is written down.
However, the word "redefine" really sums up the uphill battle we have to fight. Too many people feel that marriage equality somehow attacks their 'traditional' marriage. We all know that it doesn't, but the feeling is strong. This sentence really captures how many people feel about this issue, and when communicating with those people we should realize that. It is their truth, even if we disagree with it.
They need to be educated factually about the history of marriage and also about the benefits of marriage equality to loving same-sex couples, their children and society, and educated emotionally about the genuine love that exists in a same-sex relationship, and the hardship caused by not being able to get married. Some people will not listen, but I'm sure there are plenty who would and will. They will make the difference.
4.
Gregory in SLC | October 9, 2012 at 11:22 am
thank you NAACP!
Thank you Jeremy to exposing the "No Maryland's needed/Marriage is More" video scam! What a disgusting video!
5.
Juli | October 9, 2012 at 11:52 am
I wish someone would just point out how weak this "redefine" issue really is. So, it's about a word? Semantics? The meaning of a word is more important than whether or not we can legally protect our families? You're going to let the legal definition of a word prevent me from extending health care and survivor benefits to my spouse? You really need more than that. Your definition of marriage is already protected, it's called the first amendment. You have the iron clad right to honor marriage according to your faith regardless of the same sex couples marrying at city hall or at some other church.
6.
Seth from Maryland | October 9, 2012 at 11:56 am
i agree Gregory, i really the radio ads will have more impact then this disgusting video, i think the NAACP will tear nom apart because of its use of division tactics
7.
Leo | October 9, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Who says this: theocrats. The fuller version of this argument goes, "God defined marriage, so no one else has the right to change it."
8.
Chris | October 9, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Where can I find info on the fight against 2004 marriage amendments? Is there like a lambda legal or hrc database? Im interested in the political tactics of pro-equality advocates.
9.
Sagesse | October 9, 2012 at 1:10 pm
If we're going to engage the 'redefinition' line of thought, it is worth pointing out the aspects of the 'definition' that don't change:
(1) Marriage as 'redefined' includes all opposite marriages, intact and completely unchanged… it just includes same-sex marriages as well. The 'new' includes all the marriages that existed before 'redefinition'.
(2) The same-sex marriages that are included in the 'new' definition looks just like the 'one-man-one-woman' marriages… love, commitment, family, monogamy (or not), children (or not), religious service (or not)… except that the couple are the same gender.
(3) "…nobody is entitled to redefine marriage." Not true… marriage has been redefined in six states and DC (and soon maybe in some combination of Maine, Washington, Maryland, Minnesota and California), and in several countries. They may think no one 'should' be able to redefine marriage, but obviously the state 'can' redefine marriage.
10.
Mike in Baltimore | October 9, 2012 at 3:27 pm
Tearing nom's ads apart should be fairly easy.
The bigger question is how to tear apart the ads by the RCC. Some will falsely consider any such ads to be an attack on religion.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore for months has been airing ads that appear at first blush to be to get people to go to the local Catholic parish, but included in the ads is the 'traditional marriage' propaganda, but the RCC is expanding it by stating that 'traditional marriage' has been around for 'thousands of years'. Granted, back to the beginning of Xianity means 2,000 years, but most wouldn't consider that to be 'thousands of years'.
Maryland does not have a majority Catholic population (about 23% is Catholic, about the same %, maybe a bit less, as are African-American, and about the same as the US in toto), but many who are not Catholic give it respect (that in my opinion, it does NOT deserve).
BTW – the state with the highest Catholic population is Rhode Island, with more than 60%; Maryland is in the middle percentiles of states; lowest would appear to be Alabama at about 6% (even Utah has more than Alabama [as a % of population] at 9%).
11.
MightyAcorn | October 9, 2012 at 5:07 pm
"It's a string of words, trying to be true just because it is written down."
That. Is. Brilliant. And sadly, a far too common and easily accepted campaign device.
I always ask the "redefinition" people what the definition *is.* They never know, they just parrot the one man/one woman phrase. When I point out that a volatile affair, a cohabitation with children, or a rancorous divorce can also be between a man and a woman–so that's not a definition, just the cast of characters–that stops them dead. Because they know they can't say what they really mean: "we want our church and its discriminatory dogma to dictate civil law about marriage, because that's how we like it." We know when they say stuff like that in court, they lose, because American law is supposed to be based on legal reasoning and evidence, not religious belief. The evidence and reasoning are now turning in our favor.
So when one calls into question their true values–"are you *sure* you believe in American freedoms? Don't you want to be kind and not harm people?"–then some of them will rethink their position, as you note. Others are too rigid, angry, or paranoid, and they're beyond reason or emotional pleas for compassion.
Those "swing thinkers" are growing in number, looks like, partly because they're seeing it's *okay* not to stand in the way of marriage equality. Let's just hope this acceptance-by-osmosis process accelerates before the election….there's a lot on the line this year.
12.
Deeelaaach | October 10, 2012 at 4:26 am
If we're going to go the redefinition route, we should also point out the numerous times marriage has been redefined throughout history and the sources of that information – like the Bible itself. But I doubt that this sort of cerebral exercise will win the minds, much less hearts, of people who don't use their brains. This argument would work only for those that do think – the ones on the fences who are trying to decide where they stand.
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