Source: Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post

In a 60-second commercial, being aired widely on California cable channels, a young bride, looking lovely in her wedding dress, tries to walk down the aisle to her groom, but is blocked again and again by obstacles in her way.

The sepia-tone ad concludes with the question, "What if you couldn't marry the person you love?" and directs viewer to the Let California Ring website.

The ad might look like an early salvo in the campaign to defeat Proposition 8, the November ballot initiative that would prevent gays and lesbians from marrying in California. But according to its producers, the television spot is not about getting votes in the election, Los Angeles Times reports. They say that the nonprofit corporation that put up millions of dollars to air it is simply trying to encourage tolerance of same-sex marriage.

The ad was produced by Let California Ring, a non-profit associated with the non-political arm of Equality California and with the New York group, Freedom to Marry. The ad first aired in 2006, before the California Supreme Court ruled that marriage is a fundamental right that cannot be denied to gay and lesbian couples, and before anti-gay groups in the state launched the Prop. 8 initiative campaign that aims to overturn that decision.

Evan Wolfson, a board member of Let California Ring and executive director of Freedom to Marry, insisted in an October, 2007 entry at Huffington Post that the ad campaign "is not political or linked to an election-cycle, but rather aims at moving hearts and minds."

The distinction Wolfson made last year about "an election-cycle" has become the subject of more focused debate now that the ad is being run again while the campaign on Proposition 8 is underway.

Los Angeles Times reports that backers of Prop. 8 believe that Let California Ring and its sponsoring groups -- nonprofit organizations with tax-exempt status -- are skirting federal tax law which restricts political campaigning non-profits. By using such entities, backers avoid a fundamental requirement of state campaign finance law -- public disclosure of donors' identities.

Nonprofits such as Equality California Institute are not required to disclose donors' identities, addresses, dates of the donations or the exact amounts of gifts.

Consultants running the campaign against Prop. 8 told LA Times they had no involvement in the ad.

Frank Schubert, who is overseeing the campaign for Prop. 8, told LA Times that the spot is "absolutely" a campaign ad, but Schubert said his campaign lawyers had reviewed the spot and concluded that it would probably squeak by as legal.

"It is clearly use of a loophole in the law," Schubert said. "Whether it is an effective campaign tool is a different matter. Clearly, they're trying to set a soft message in place to get the electorate ready for the battle that is likely to come."

Wolfson explained in 2007, when the ad first aired, that Let California Ring hopes the ad will encourage tolerance of same-sex marriage:

Let California Ring aims to encourage a million conversations throughout the state (and I'd like to see millions more throughout the country) -- at house-parties, around office water-coolers (do many offices still have those?), and across dinner tables. To make these conversations happen, we have to break the chicken-and-egg of gay people not talking to the people in their lives directly about why we need them to care about ending exclusion from marriage, while non-gay people wait for their non-gay friends and family-members to bring it up, or think everything is fine.

Wolfson would not tell LA Times exactly how much the ad was costing, only that it was a "multimillion-dollar" ad buy.

"Of course, it has a viewpoint," he said of the commercial. "But it is not a political viewpoint."

Philanthropist and technology entrepreneur David Bohnett said he donated $500,000 to air the Let California Ring ad and helped fund the group in the past, Los Angeles Times reports.

"We believe it is completely legal," Bohnett said, noting that the ad, in various forms, has aired since 2006. "The ad helps educate voters so they can make up their own minds," Bohnett said.

Separately, Bohnett has given $100,000 to defeat Proposition 8, LA Times reports.

Source: TV ad backing gay marriage doesn't mention Prop. 8 | Los Angeles Times
Let California Ring: Talking About Change Makes It | Huffington Post