Gay groups launch $250,000 ad campaign for gay marriage

Mother of God, why?

I'm all for equal marriage rights, but three months before the we're spending a quarter of a million dollars on promoting gay marriage. Again, why? I just don't get it. Politically, what is to be gained by spending a hell of a lot of money on promoting gay marriage NOW? Is this supposed to help us get-out-the-vote in the fall? I'm not sure how it does. Though it probably helps get out the far-right Republican vote. So, again the question is asked, why these ads on this topic and why right now?

Now, I'm all for helping change the culture, and doing things to win over the hearts and minds of Americans on various gay issues. And ad campaigns are an important part of that goal. And an ad campaign showing loving gay couples who have been together, in one case, for 53 years, is great PR. But, again, I'm still not sure why this campaign is running right now when America is rightly focused on the fall elections, and that election is increasingly about George Bush's incompetence in Iraq and at home and the Republicans having lost their minds. Why would we want to help shift the debate from all of that to gay marriage?

And finally, if we've got a quarter of a million dollars to piss away on ads, I'd like to think there are a lot better uses for that money, like, oh, say promoting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which would ban anti-gay job discrimination, which polls at around 70% support, and which has relatively strong support in Congress.

Is there some reason we as a movement can't focus on the rather-important attainable goals first, then move on to the more difficult ones? The right wing does this all the time - you don't see them trying to overturn Roe v Wade all in one fell swoop. They do it gradually, in thin slices, so you don't even know they're coming... like the fog rolling in on cat paws (love that quote).

One final thought. Maybe this is being done to help fight back against all the anti-gay state ballot initiatives and the like. And that isn't a bad thing. But it's still not quite clear how this ad campaign is helping us do that. And in any case, if this were the intent, it'd be nice if someone told us members of the gay mafia, so we could help, rather than having to find out about it in the newspaper.