This morning, as I was rushing to get ready for the first day back at work after the New Year holiday, an ad came on TV that made me stop and listen. Right there in the middle of the morning news hours was a commercial on marriage equality in Texas.
I didn’t catch the whole commercial, so I didn’t realize until I got to work and was reading my email that the ad I had seen on TV actually featured Fort Worth Police Officer Chris Gorrie, a gay man who talks about his partner Justin and the fact that they want to be legally married in Texas. The great part, though, is that the other three people in the commercial — Monica Jackson, Jay Doshi and Allison Fincher — are straight FWPD officers who are speaking up in support of their gay colleague and his right to marry the man he loves.
Here’s a transcript of the commercial:
Chris Gorrie: I became a police officer in 2006.
Monica Jackson: Chris makes a sacrifice everyday along with the rest of us.
Jay Doshi: He puts his life on the line just like I do.
Chris Gorrie: My partner Justin and I — we live together. Eventually one day we’d like to get married just like everybody else.
Allison Fincher: A lot of people think gay people shouldn’t be able to get married — that makes no sense.
Chris 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.
Jay 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.
The ad is part of Texas for Marriage, a joint campaign by Freedom to Marry and Equality Texas to amplify bipartisan support for marriage across the state. It is on a two-day run in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso, among other cities.
Last February, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia, in San Antonio, ruled that Texas’ ban on marriage equality violates the U.S. Constitution. Then-Attorney General/now-Gov. Greg Abbott appealed that ruling, and a three-court panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on the case — in which Plano couple Vic Holmes and Mark Pharris are co-plaintiffs with Austin lesbian couple Nicole Dimetman and Cleo DeLeon — on Friday, Jan. 9, in New Orleans.
(Dallas Voice will have special correspondents Patti Fink and Erin Moore in New Orleans Friday to report on the hearing as it happens.)
In case you miss the ad — which I saw on CBS Channel 11 — here it is, on YouTube:
