Gay rights groups fund ad campaign

Two Washington-based gay rights groups, the Log Cabin Republicans and the Human Rights Campaign, have teamed up to fund a Massachusetts-wide advertising campaign beginning today that denounces a proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

The Log Cabin Republicans, headed by former Massachusetts lawmaker Patrick Guerriero, and the Human Rights Campaign, which recently tapped former state Senator Cheryl A. Jacques of Needham as its president, planned to unveil the campaign at a press conference today.

The first ads, which will run in the Boston Globe, the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, admonish Republicans and Democrats alike to "Be conservative with the Constitution. Don't amend it." Radio and TV spots will probably follow, Guerriero said in an interview.

At the bottom of the ads, readers are urged to contact their legislators and "tell them to vote no" when they convene next week to take up a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.

The advertisements are the latest addition to the debate over gay marriage in Massachusetts, which intensified after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Nov. 18 that same-sex couples are entitled to civil marriage rights.

Last month, the national conservative Christian organization Focus on the Family bought full-page advertisements in the same newspapers stating: "When it Comes to Raising Kids, Same-Sex Marriage Isn't the Same." The organization belongs to a Newton-based umbrella group called the Coalition for Marriage that has already run radio advertising and will probably buy more, said Peter L. Brandt, spokesman for Focus on the Family.

"You never know what will move people," Brandt said. "We felt we wanted to put into an advertising space the arguments. . . . If the Log Cabin Republicans and the HRC have decided to do print advertising, folks may make decisions based on what they read."

Guerriero, a former state representative, mayor of Melrose, and top aide to former acting Governor Jane Swift, and Jacques, who left office Jan. 1, frequently sparred on policy issues while the two served in the Legislature, Guerriero said in an interview.

But on the issue of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, Guerriero and Jacques, who are both gay, see eye to eye, he said. "There's common ground here," Guerriero said. "The key focus of this effort is, regardless of your position on civil marriage or civil unions, amending the constitution is not a conservative thing to do. It will divide the state and bring the voices of intolerance into our state when, in reality, most citizens in Massachusetts want legislators jump-starting the economy, keeping our state safe during the war on terror, and not wasting money and energy on changing the constitution."

Jacques said the new advertising campaign is actually a slightly modified version of ads the HRC has been running across the nation as conservative groups push Republican leaders in Washington to amend the US Constitution with the Federal Marriage Amendment, which already has several dozen backers in Congress.

While a few Massachusetts Republicans have come out against the proposed constitutional amendment, which is sponsored by Rehoboth Democrat Philip Travis, the state's Democrats have so far taken the most active steps to associate their party with opposition to the legislation. Not only has the party codified its opposition in the official platform, but on Thursday, the state Democratic Party committee passed resolutions against the amendment and in favor of gay civil marriage.

While the new ad campaign is designed to put the heat on the state's 200 legislators as they contemplate action at the constitutional convention, it remains unclear whether the Legislature will get the chance to debate the issue next week. Senate President Robert E. Travaglini has said he would put off the vote if the SJC had not yet delivered an advisory opinion on the constitutionality of a draft bill that would authorize civil unions for same-sex couples while defining marriage as a heterosexual union.

The Coalition for Marriage, a group of state and national organizations advocating in favor of the amendment, has been urging Travaglini to allow debate to take place regardless of the court's actions, saying the vote is already long overdue.

A majority of lawmakers in two successive joint sessions of the Legislature must approve a proposed amendment in order for it to go before the state's voters the following year. As a result, the earliest the Massachusetts constitution could include a ban on gay marriage would be 2006. But the SJC's decision that same-sex couples are entitled to civil marriage rights under the state's constitution is set to go into effect in May.