VIDEO: First TV Ads by Protect Maine Marriage Equality

Here are the first television ads in the ongoing fight to protect marriage equality in Maine this fall.


Encouragingly, Protect Maine Equality/ No On 1 has decided to take a different tack from the failed No on 8 campaign last year. Although the second ad with Bill Whitten also uses a straight parent as a surrogate for the campaign message to vote no to protect equality, it is different in two aspects from the Thorons ad last year (which was the first ad run in the Proposition 8 fight last year). 1) This time the parent's masculine bonafides are reinforced through his military and football past and 2) his body language clearly communicates that he was uncomfortable with homosexuality and marriage equality, but now he has changed his mind to embrace full equal rights for the child he loves.

The other ad with Sam and his lesbian moms is completely different from anything that No on 8 aired. It shows the impact of denying equality on straight kids who are growing up with LGBT parents. This is an important innoculation against the inevitable attack from the heterosexual supremacists who will claim that marriage equality somehow confuses abd endangers children. Sam is clearly neither of these. This is an excellent ad.

Both ads appeal to different segments of the Maine voting public but still send the same message: to protect the Maine value that everyone should be treated equally they need to vote NO on Question 1 in November.