Harvey Milk was right: when they get to know us, they vote with us. Why did the No on 8 campaign ignore the historic opportunity of Proposition 8 to introduce voters to gay families?
Well, finally, there is a group dedicated to doing exactly that, and it is bottom-up grassroots style politics at its finest. Get To Know Me First is creating several 30-second ads showing the intimacy and familiarity of family life in gay families. No videos are yet available -- they are still in production -- but the overview of each spot can be seen on the group's website. They are currently raising money to show the ads during the week of January 20 leading up to inauguration, and unlike giving to political campaigns, donations are fully tax-deductible.
Unlike groups behind the failed No on 8 campaign, this group is a completely bottom-up grassroots initiative. A bunch of gay families got together and cooperated with a nonprofit film studio to get this effort off the ground. It is exactly the kind of people-powered politics that will ultimately win this civil rights struggle.
Donating to this group is a productive way to express frustration with Proposition 8 or with Obama's selection of Rick Warren to give the opening prayer in the inauguration. What better way to repudiate Warren's claim that gay relationships are equivalent to pedophilia and incest than by showing America what gay relationships actually look like? What better way to rebuke the hatred of the religious right than by showing the compassion, courage and love that gay families exhibit every day?
Some will wonder why the commercials should air now, when there is no election around the corner. But it is unrealistic to change people's minds the night before an election. There is a lot of noise leading up to an election, and it's all too easy for our message to get drowned out by the sheer volume of the daily news cycle. Now is a relatively quiet time when, instead of competing with political advertisements and the 24-hour buzz of talking heads debating Obama's latest move or McCain's latest misstep, we're competing with tampon commercials and news stories about the weather. We can get more eyeballs per dollar, and the eyeballs will be paying more attention. Read more about the group's media strategy.
Moreover, the impact of the advertising will not fade with time. The more people see normal-looking, sympathetic gay families, the more that will be their mental image when they think about gay equality from now on.
Arguably, part of the reason we lost on Prop 8 was because the Yes people got their first and framed the issue as one of judicial overreach, the indoctrination of children and the vulnerability of religious freedom. The No ads were reactionary and abstract, and did little to fight these misconceptions. But perhaps equally importantly, the No ads fought the battle on the Yes campaign's home field. Instead of the message being "we have families," the message was "we don't indoctrinate children and we don't threaten religious freedom." We should have known, after the election of 2004, that running with a negative message is a losing strategy.
Well, now we have a positive message. If these ads can become the image that comes to people's minds when they think about gay rights, we will have won.
Finally, if we can make this organization a success now, there is a much higher chance that it will become the dominant campaigning model in the next election cycle and replace the ineffective, failed model of the No on 8 campaign.
Here is the group's press release:
TV Ads with Gay and Lesbian Families Promoting the Repeal of Proposition 8 to
Air Inauguration Week
LOS ANGELES, December 17/PRNewswire/ -- A group of gay and lesbian Californians
announced today they will be “taking to the airwaves” to demonstrate why the right to
marry is so important for their families.
The group, GetToKnowMeFirst.org, is planning a campaign of five 30-second
commercials to run throughout Inauguration Week in January. The spots will run in both
urban and rural markets.
“It’s important that our fellow Californians see the faces of the real families that are
directly affected by the passage of Proposition 8,” said John Ireland, the group’s
organizer.
One of the spots in the GetToKnowMeFirst.org campaign will feature Sonia and Gina, a
couple who are raising a son and daughter, ages 6 and 3. “Don't take my family's rights
away. Get to know me first,” Sonia says in the ad. “Our families may look different
from yours, but we’re not. We need the same things… like marriage… so we can protect
and provide for our kids.”
Another spot will feature Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, the original plaintiffs in the
marriage lawsuit that eventually led the California Supreme Court to legalize marriage
for same-sex couples in May 2008. That ruling was overturned by the passage of
Proposition 8 in November.
Two of the ads will also be in Spanish. One profiles a Latina couple and the other
profiles a family with triplets, headed by two men.
All of the spots are available online at GetToKnowMeFirst.org
POWER UP, an education-based non-profit film studio in Los Angeles, is sponsoring the
project and will be producing the spots. POWER UP has produced award-winning
LGBT cinema since 2000. They are online at PowerUpFilms.org.
Donate!