"Too controversial" to show a commercial featuring black gay men raising a family ... during the inauguration of the nation's first black president?
That was the response by the sales team at KABC-TV, the Disney and ABC owned and operated station in Los Angeles, to the ad agency for GetToKnowUsFirst.org. The marriage equality activists produced five 30-second spots (watch here) featuring gay and lesbian families with the message "Marriage promotes families. Support marriage
equality." The spots aired in 42 of the California's 58 counties—each county where Proposition 8 passed—during Tuesday's
coverage of the Presidential Inauguration. KABC is "the only station that refused to sell the ad space." Guess which ad they rejected?
The rejected ad profiles two African American men raising five
children ages 6 through 25. Ironically, the family lives in Los
Angeles.
The media buy was attempted by the organization's ad agency,
New and Improved Media. Its CEO, Keith Fisher, was surprised that KABC
rejected the group's money. Fisher said, "We usually only see this with
risque content, as in a trailer for a movie." He added, "If KABC thinks
they have to protect the public from this family, something's obviously
very wrong over there."
Chris Yokogawa, the ad agency's media buyer, worked with the
station, attempting to ease any concerns they might have. He said, "We
went back and forth a couple of times. I explained that this family is
far from controversial. They were firm in their rejection. They said it
was too controversial to air during the Inauguration, since 'many
families will be watching."
The spot featuring the black gay couple was specifically chosen for the Los Angeles DMA because the county has the state's highest concentration of black residents. Two other spots in the campaign feature Latino couples and one of those commercials is in Spanish. The one-off spots aired across California on Tuesday—before, during and after
the Presidential Inauguration—on Good Morning America, Today,
Despierta America (Univision) and Levantate (Telemundo), as
well as on CNN, Fox News and on local news programs.
The spot is a much-needed shot in the arm toward the visibility of black gay and lesbian couples, who tend to raise more children but are routinely overlooked in marriage equality messaging and were completely ignored in the No on 8 campaign. Oh and the visibility of black gay and lesbian families is a direct response to the anti-gay black pastors who used children as props to convince their congregations to vote for Prop 8. Very amusing this television station has no problems accepting money to encourage consumers to buy Viagra or beer, but, heaven forbid "families" should see an ad featuring families.
AFTER THE JUMP, watch the ad in question.
Thirty-seven-year-old Tony Randolph Hunter and a friend were severely beaten on September 7 near Eighth and N Streets N.W. The two were headed to the BeBar, the popular gay club. A 
