Maine Has My Favorite Pro-Marriage Equality Ad

I think this is the best pro-marriage equality ad that I have seen so far this year from all of the four marriage equality ballot measure states of Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. It has a straight married couple named Eric & Jen Humphrey, clearly in love, talking directly to the camera and matter-of-factly stating the obvious: allowing the same-sex couple down the street to get married will have absolutely no impact on the lives of the straight couple. This message is delivered twice in a mere 30 seconds. First, with the sentence "Allowing the same-sex couple down the street to get married doesn't change our marriage. We know who we are and what we mean to each other." This is a devastating rebuke to the claim that marriage equality somehow impacts heterosexuals' marriages.

Then the "no impact" message is repeated again at the end with  "Allowing loving, committed couples to get married isn't going to change our relationship one bit; we're voting Yes on 1." It's also significant (and effective) that it is the husband in the couple who delivers the no impact line, since almost always, men are more opposed to marriage equality than women.

And so the ad basically summarizes a basic truth at the core of the ballot measure fights: marriage equality only impacts the people who would be able to get married. The heterosexual supremacists have to try and scare and confuse voters that somehow allowing gay people to get married is going to have some detrimental impact on children, on society, on marriage itself. But these claims are not based on facts or evidence but are appeals to simple homophobia, discrimination and ignorance. This ad rejects these appeals and re-affirms the basic principle at stake of "live and let live." I would have liked to see an inclusion of the golden rule in the ad, but it's corollary is in there and is also effective.