Actor Sam Waterston has joined the
Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) New Yorkers for Marriage Equality
campaign.
“Let's make the system fair and end
institutionalized bigotry,” Waterston says in his 30-second video.
“It's time for New York to lead again. Join us.” (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page.)
The 70-year-old Waterston, a practicing
Episcopalian, is best known for his Golden Globe-winning portrayal of
Jack McCoy on the long-running NBC police drama Law & Order.
He was nominated for an Oscar for playing American journalist Sydney
Schanberg in The Killing Fields.
Last week, former Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit star Chris Meloni, who played bisexual on
the HBO prison drama Oz, recorded
a similar video.
Waterston and Meloni's ads are part of
an ongoing campaign by HRC, the nation's largest gay rights advocate,
which hopes to build momentum on the issue now ahead
of a second attempt to legalize the institution in the state later
this Spring.
According
to a poll released last week, a majority (58%) of New York voters
favor giving gay and lesbian couples the right to marry.