Moving Republicans to Support Gay Marriage

Can you be Republican and support gay marriage?  The short answer to that is, of course. Look at Meghan McCain, Steve Schmidt, Dede Scozzafava, or heck, even Dick Cheney. But while a few voices in the wilderness have come out for marriage equality, most of the Republican Party toes a line that says no to same-sex marriage. But despite what Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, or Newt Gingrich might say about same-sex marriage, there's room in the GOP to change hearts and minds on this issue. And one commercial is doing just that.

The commercial comes from Truth and Hope, a media advocacy group that launched in 2004 to help support the Presidential candidacy of Howard Dean. It's an attempt to tell the story of one set of grandparents that are as American as apple pie, baseball, or Little House on the Prairie. What do these grandparents have to say?

Well, that they love their gay son. And his husband. And their adopted children.

And then there are lots of shots of cute babies.

It's possible that people just really like cute babies (much like people like soft puppies and fluffy clouds), which is why they watch this commercial and think "happiness." But as The Advocate reports, the commercial could also be swaying conservatives originally opposed to same-sex marriage to see LGBT families in a different light.

Upwards of 58 percent of Republicans described the ad (youtube clip below, and here) as extremely or somewhat effective. But that's not all. According to The Advocate, conservatives viewing this ad were actually inspired. As a group, opponents of marriage equality listed "inspiration" ahead of emotions like anger or embarrassment.

As Eugene Hedlund, the founder and chair of truthandhope.org, tells the magazine, that's huge news.

"The fact that one in five Republicans expressed happiness, and that the effectiveness rating over 50% with all three parties shows that we are on target with our message," Hedlund said. "Now it becomes our task to take this message to the airwaves, beginning in Maine...."

So does this finally mean that when it comes to advertising, LGBT groups are starting to gain the upper hand in how they sell the issue of equal rights? It's hard to say. But with numbers that look that good, Truth and Hope is definitely onto something.

(Photo at top of post courtesy of Drab Makyo's photostream on Flickr.)