Anti-gay hate takes many forms, but reusing a picture of a loving couple as a political attack ad without their consent is certainly going too far. Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere, a couple married in New York after the state passed marriage equality, were outraged when they noticed themselves pictured in an anti-gay ad from the Public Advocate of the United States. The advertisement, used as an attack on Colorado Senator Jean White and her sympathetic stance towards LGBT equality, features the happy couple kissing within a photoshopped Colorado scene. The couple is particularly offended that such a special moment from their New York wedding is being used for hate: “It is a reminder of the happiness I felt the day [Tom] proposed to me and of the excitement I had all throughout our engagement. It represents hope and it represents love. Or at least it did,” writes Edwards. The Public Advocate refuses to apologize and admit its wrongdoing – no surprise coming from a Southern Poverty Law Center designated anti-gay “hate group.”
Read below for an excerpt from the Advocate.com story:
A married gay couple is outraged after an antigay “hate group” has stolen one of their wedding photos and used it in a political attack ad.
Brian Edwards heard about the ad from a friend who sent an iPhone picture after recognizing him and husband Tom Privitere.
“I’m in shock and I’m angry and I’m hurt and I’m flabbergasted and I’m livid,” Edwards wrote on his blog, The Gay Wedding Experience.
The Public Advocate of the United States, which is classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an antigay “hate group,” had taken the photo right off the website, cut out the New York couple and pasted them in a Colorado setting, then slapped on it the question: “State Senator Jean White’s Idea of ‘Family Values?'”
It was then mailed to thousands of people, according to a report in The Denver Post, as an attack on the state senator seeking reelection. White has twice voted in favor of Colorado’s failed effort to pass a civil unions law there.
“I want to share what this picture means to me,” Edwards wrote in reaction. “It represents my first home away from home, my beloved NYC, which at the time this image was taken (2 years ago) did not allow same sex couples to marry. It represents my long-term relationship with my best friend, my partner, and now husband – the love we share and obstacles we have overcome. It is a reminder of the happiness I felt the day he proposed to me and of the excitement I had all throughout our engagement. It represents hope and it represents love. Or at least it did.”
The Post reports that the Public Advocate refuses to apologize and claims that even though the photo is copyright protected, it can do with it as it pleases — since others have supposedly done the same with their copyrighted images. . . .