West Virginia Anti-Marriage Ad Draws Jeers In & Out of State

An advertisement being aired in West Virginia has drawn criticism for depicting a heterosexual family as being viewed through a sniper's rifle scope.

Both the content and the provenance of the ad has raised questions, reported an Associated Press article carried on Feb. 19 in The Times West Virginian.

Making repeated use of phrases like "God's design" and "unaccountable judges," the ad runs to nearly 6 minutes, and claims that marriage equality would destroy religious liberty.

The ad's narration predicts that if marriage equality is not barred as a matter of law in the state constitution, access of matrimonial rights by gay and lesbian families will "threaten... our ability to freely and legally follow the faith," which, for many Christians, includes an understanding of Biblical condemnation against gays.

The claim of a loss of religious liberty was used in the campaign to pass California's anti-gay ballot initiative Proposition 8, which revoked the existing right of gay and lesbian families to marry.

Despite reported claims that in Massachusetts, where marriage equality first became legal in 2004, churches have been closed and clergy subject to legal action for speaking out against gays, no such actions have taken place in that state he five years since marriage quality became a matter of Massachusetts law.

The ad also warned that school children would be forced to learn about homosexuality in the classroom, another claim that was used to promote Proposition 8 and which was denied by school officials in that state.

But it was the fleeting image of a sniper's scope superimposed on the picture of a husband, wife, and their small children that drew immediate criticism.

The ad is the creation of an organization calling itself The Family Policy council of West Virginia, which is seeking to put a amendment to the state's constitution onto the 2009 ballot.

The ad cites the fact that in all thirty states where gay and lesbian family have been put to a popular vote, constitutional amendments barring marriage equality have been approved by voters.

The ad claims that gay activists are targeting the other 20 states.

To date, marriage equality has been granted in only three states; Connecticut and California both joined Massachusetts in offering the freedom to marry to gay and lesbian families last year. Marriage equality remains legal in only Massachusetts and Connecticut following narrow voter approval of Proposition 8 in California, though that amendment is now facing a court challenge based on the extent of the changes it makes to state law.

Prop. 8 opponents argue that the ballot initiative exceeded its stated goal of amending the state constitution and in effect revised the constitution--a legal proceeding that cannot be carried out with a simple majority vote, as an amendment can.

The California State Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the validity of Prop. 8 on March 5 and is expected to deliver a finding within 90 days.

Several other states have been cited by GLBT equality proponents as being somewhat likely to join the remaining two states where marriage equality is currently legal, including Vermont, New Jersey, and New York.

The president of the anti-gay group in West Virginia, Jeremy Dys, was cited in the AP article as saying that churches statewide would participate in an event called "Stand4Marriage Sunday," scheduled for March 1.

The narration that accompanies the image of the sniper scope targeting a heterosexual family accuses GLBT equality advocates of "working tirelessly to define marriage away from God's design."

The AP article noted that bloggers, such as at The Huffington Post, had begun referring to the ad as the "gay snipers" commercial.

Another source of criticism was the apparent involvement of out-of-state interests. The AP article quoted the local ACLU's Seth DeStefano as saying, "There are a lot of fingerprints on this campaign that are not from West Virginia."

The article traced the creation of the group's Web sites in part to a Georgia company called CampaignSecrets.org, which, the article noted, refers to itself as being "focused exclusively on electing Republicans to local office."

One of the Wed sites solicits money for the group and encourages clergy to pressure state lawmakers on the issue, according to the AP. The Web site allows clergy to post the legislators' responses for public view.

The executive officer of CampaignSecrets.org, Mark Montini, was one defendant hit with a lawsuit in 2005 by a same-sex couple whose wedding photo was used without permission in an ad campaign targeting the AARP.

A March 9, 2005 article at Pam's House Blend noted that the couple, M. Raymen and Steven P. Hansen, had brought suit after their wedding photo was used in an ad that attempted to characterize the AARP as pro-marriage equality and anti-U.S. servicemembers.

The 365Gay.com article quoted at Pam's House Blend included a statement from the couple: "Our privacy and personal integrity were violated when our wedding photo was stolen and used to portray us as treasonous, unpatriotic, and a threat to American troops," said Raymen.

"We have been harassed and humiliated by this hateful ad campaign and by the bigotry and anger it has generated against us nationwide," Raymen added.

Another Republican-oriented firm, Advantage, Inc., based in Nebraska, was also cited in the AP article as having been put into play by the anti-gay West Virginia group. Advantage, Inc. was employed to conduct a survey in West Virginia on the views of residents regarding marriage equality.

That poll, conducted last year, sampled 513 registered voters and reported that 73% of respondents said they would be "likely'' to cast their vote in favor of "a ballot initiative that defined marriage as 'only a union of one man and one woman," reported another AP article, carried on Feb. 16 by the West Virginia Gazette.

That article quoted Dys as citing the poll result as evidence that, "The people of West Virginia want to define marriage for themselves."

Said Dys, "They don't want a judge doing it for them."

The marriage equality issue has been a hot-button tactic for Republicans in the last few elections, and the article referenced DiStefano as citing past attempts by Republicans and allied interests to use the issue as a means of defeating Democrats in state races.

The anti-gay ad, in addition to using words and phrases from past anti-gay campaigns such as "legal chaos" and "[homosexual] indoctrination," also talked about how "pro-bono" attorneys "from the ACLU" would become involved in opening marriage equality up to gay and lesbian families without a constitutional amendment in place to bar such unions.

The AP article cited Dys as acknowledging that his group was allied with anti-gay group Focus on the Family, as well as with "similarly named organizations in nearly 40 other states," but said that Dys insisted that, "We have no legal and no financial connection to any of them."

Claimed Dys, "We're completely supported by the faith-based giving of West Virginians."

The group has been around under different names since 2005, according to the AP. In 2008, the group had attempted to convince the state's governor, Joe Manchin, to include the issue in a special legislative session, but the governor declined to do so, citing existing state law that bars marriage equality.

But Dys, using martial language to underscore his point, indicated that state law was not sufficient. The West Virginia Gazette article quoted Dys as saying, "What we have is a shield, not a sword" with the existing law.

The ad is reminiscent of another recent example of anti-gay advertising, an infomercial called "Silencing the Christians" that seeks to persuade viewers that gays and lesbians are intent on squelching freedom of religion in America.

That program proved so controversial that a Michigan TV station, after twice delaying its broadcast, eventually chose not to run the hour-long paid program at all.

State lawmakers in West Virginia have expressed similar sentiments toward the anti-gay ballot initiative push. The West Virginia Gazette article quoted the state's Senate Minority Leader, Don Caruth, a Republican, as saying, "I doubt that we do a lot on social issues."

Instead, Caruth and Democrat Carrie Webster, the house Judiciary Chairwoman, anticipated that the legislature would be concentrating on the much more pressing issue of the economy, the article said.

Opined Webster, "Our focus almost exclusively should be on doing as much as we can with what little we have.

"We need to keep people working.

"If we have ended the session on issues like that," Webster added, "I think we will have done a disservice to the public."