TV ad backing gay marriage doesn't mention Prop. 8
Producers say it isn't targeting the ballot measure that would ban same-sex marriage. But foes say it is a way to avoid disclosing names of donors.
SACRAMENTO — The scene plays out like a bad dream.
A bride is trying to make her way to the altar, but she keeps encountering obstacles. She trips over cans tied to the back of a car; a flower girl tries to block her way; a wedding guest trips her with a cane.
Finally, after the groom is restrained from going to the bride's aid, words come up on the screen: "What if you couldn't marry the person you love?"
The 60-second commercial, which is now airing on cable television statewide, might look like an early salvo in the campaign to defeat Proposition 8, the November ballot initiative that would prevent gays and lesbians from marrying in California. But according to its producers, the television spot is not about getting votes in the election. They say that the nonprofit corporation that put up millions of dollars to air it is simply trying to encourage tolerance of same-sex marriage.
Some experts believe that the ad's producer, Let California Ring, is skirting federal tax law, which restricts political campaigning by nonprofit organizations with tax-exempt status. By using such an entity, backers also avoid a fundamental requirement of state campaign finance law -- public disclosure of donors' identities.
"The ad calls on people to 'support the freedom to marry,' " said Donald B. Tobin, a professor at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law and an expert on tax and election law. "In the midst of an initiative campaign, this kind of call-to-action advocacy should be seen as lobbying against the current initiative."
Attorney Evan Wolfson of the New York group, Freedom to Marry, and a board member of Let California Ring, disagreed.
"Of course, it has a viewpoint," he said of the commercial. "But it is not a political viewpoint."
The ad, he said, "is untethered to any political moment, election year, political decision or vote. It is all about asking people how they would feel if they or their loved ones couldn't marry who they love."
Consultants running the campaign against Proposition 8 said they had no involvement in the ad.
Let California Ring is a project of the San Francisco-based nonprofit Equality California Institute. Equality California also has a political arm that is helping raise political donations to defeat Proposition 8 on the Nov. 4 ballot. Unlike donations to the nonprofit Equality California Institute, contributions to Equality California's political arm and to the campaign itself are not deductible.
