Actor Morgan Freeman, who cut a television commercial for President Obama's reelection campaign last month, is narrating a new ad for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in support of same-sex marriage.
The new ad from the nation's largest LGBT group began airing Sunday during the morning political talk shows. It features images of the women's suffrage and civil rights movements, along with gay and lesbian couples, comparing the fight for same-sex marriages to those historical struggles.
"Now, across our country, we're standing together for the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry the person they love," Freeman says in the ad. "And, with historic victories for marriage, we've delivered a mandate for full equality. The wind is at our back, but our journey has just begun."
In a statement, HRC President Chad Griffin said the commercial would air nationally.
“This year proved to be a pivotal turning point in the movement for marriage equality, and now we press onward with renewed vigor and public opinion squarely on our side,” said Griffin. “While we celebrate, we must remember that we fight until full equality has reached every single person in every corner of this vast country.”
Earlier this month, voters in Maine, Washington and Maryland approved ballot initiatives approving gay marriage — the first time voters in the United States had done so. A proposed constitutional amendment in Minnesota that would have limited marriages to heterosexual couples was also defeated.
Next month, the Supreme Court is slated to decide whether it will hear cases challenging the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment approved by voters that limited marriage to between a man and a woman.
