Hollywood celebrities support access to civil marriage for same sex couples

8 Sep 2008

History-making married lesbian couple Robin Tyler and Diane Olson have joined up with a coalition of celebrities and advocates in an ad campaign urging a "No" vote on California's constitutional same-sex marriage ban Proposition 8, which is on the November ballot.

"The California Supreme Court, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the mayors of the three largest cities in California are all against Proposition 8," notes actress Carolyn Hennesy in one of the spots.

Engaged couple Heather Matarazzo and Caroline Murphy, actors Tyne Daly, Christine Lahti, Camryn Mannheim and Wilson Cruz, Air America comediennes Frangela, labor organizer Dolores Huerta and Rev. Neil G. Thomas are among those who also contributed their time and voices to the campaign, recently featured in The Advocate.

"If some of us don't have civil rights, then none of us do," said Angela Shelton, half of Frangela. "At least when we got rid of Jim Crow, I thought that was the goal." "As two black women," added counterpart Frances Callier, "we feel that it's really our responsibility, because we have a platform in terms of the radio, to go out there and speak about it."

"When I got married," Tyne Daly recalls of her marriage to African-American actor Georg Stanford Brown, "my marriage was illegal in seven states in this country...Government can't dictate hearts and minds. But it can decide law, and when laws [change], other things change."

Tyler and Olson, married in Beverly Hills immediately after the California Supreme Court's May 15 ruling went into effect, were plaintiffs in Tyler et al v. County of Los Angeles, filed on February 24, 2004 and later combined with other suits to become the case that led to the ruling, affirming the right to civil marriage to all Californian couples.

The ads will be offered free to groups that show interest.

In addition to the spot available to view below, more ads can be viewed on TheEqualityCampaign's YouTube channel. More from the participants can be read at Advocate.com.

View the video by clicking this link