The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the
nation's largest LGBT rights advocate, has launched a TV campaign
promoting gay rights in the Deep South.
The campaign, titled All God's
Children, is a first for the Deep South.
A television ad featuring a
conservative Christian Republican mother will begins airing Monday in
Jackson, Mississippi.
In the 60-second spot, Mary Jane
Kennedy says that she was unprepared for learning that her son is
gay.
“I said, 'What is going to happen?
This is going to tear our family apart. Your daddy will die,'” she
said. Instead, Kennedy said, her husband cried and said he loved his
son.
“God called us to love each other,”
Kennedy added. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
The multifaceted campaign – it will
also include direct-mail, billboards and online banner ads – will
last four weeks and cost $310,000.
Depending on the response in
Mississippi, the campaign may extended to Alabama and Arkansas.
“This first ever campaign in the Deep
South is an unprecedented opportunity to tell the true stories of
LGBT Mississippians – stories of hope, family, perseverance and
progress,” HRC President Chad Griffin said
in a statement. “LGBT people are just like everyone else –
they go to church, volunteer in their communities, and want to build
a better future for their families. Most importantly, they're born
and raised in the state of Mississippi, and they want to help make it
a more inclusive place to live for everybody.”
According to a Gallup
poll, 61 percent of Mississippians say that they are very religious,
making the state the most religious in the U.S.
The commercials will begin airing the
same week that a federal judge will hear arguments in a lawsuit
challenging Mississippi's ban on gay marriage, overwhelmingly
approved by voters a decade ago.
(Related: Federal
judge to hear challenge to Mississippi gay marriage ban next week.)