TX PD: Freedom Means Freedom for Everyone Even to Gay Marriage
On Friday the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals is set to hear oral arguments in DeLeon v. Perry, which challenges Texas’ ban on same-sex marriages. And in advance of the big day, the 30-second spot posted below made its bow on local TV courtesy Texas for Marriage — which happens to be chaired by none other than Mark McKinnon, the UT grad who served as George W. Bush’s first presidential campaign media adviser.
The spot — running in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso — features Fort Worth police officers making their case for marriage equality, simple as that.
“Our ad shows Fort Worth police officers standing up for their gay colleague’s freedoms,” says Freedom to Marry’s national campaign director Marc Solomon in a release dispatched to media this morning. “With poignancy, they remind Texans that anyone who puts their life on the line to protect other Americans should not be treated unequally or be denied the ability to protect their own family by being barred from marrying.”
The star of the ad, more or less, is Detective Chris Gorrie — who you might remember from Fort Worth PD’s LGBT recruiting video that grabbed a few national and virtual headlines over the summer. (“You may be asking yourself, ‘What does this 30-year-old white guy have to do with diversity? Well, the short answer is, ‘I’m gay.’ Believe it or not, we exist.”)
Gorrie said then the video sparked an outpouring of “negative stuff” from people who “didn’t get the message I’m trying to send out,” but that isn’t stopping him: In the ad below, Gorrie talks about wanting to marry his partner Justin. His colleagues have his back.
Here’s the transcript:
Chris Gorrie, detective: I became a police officer in 2006.
Monica Jackson, detective: Chris makes a sacrifice everyday along with the rest of us.
Jay Doshi, neighborhood officer: He puts his life on the line just like I do.
Gorrie: My partner Justin and I, we live together. Eventually one day we’d like to get married just like everybody else.
Allison Fincher, detective: A lot of people think gay people shouldn’t be able to get married. That makes no sense.
Gorrie: Freedom is a big deal — the freedom to marry, the freedom to say what you want to say, and the freedom to do what you want to do.
Doshi: Texans believe in freedom and liberty, and part of that is to be able to marry who you love, so Chris should be able to marry whoever he loves.
Monica Jackson, detective: Chris makes a sacrifice everyday along with the rest of us.
Jay Doshi, neighborhood officer: He puts his life on the line just like I do.
Gorrie: My partner Justin and I, we live together. Eventually one day we’d like to get married just like everybody else.
Allison Fincher, detective: A lot of people think gay people shouldn’t be able to get married. That makes no sense.
Gorrie: Freedom is a big deal — the freedom to marry, the freedom to say what you want to say, and the freedom to do what you want to do.
Doshi: Texans believe in freedom and liberty, and part of that is to be able to marry who you love, so Chris should be able to marry whoever he loves.
And, for those who missed it, the video:
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