Pepperdine Prof Back in New Yes on 8 Ad

The campaign to ban gay marriage in California is running a television ad starting Wednesday featuring a girl telling her mother she learned in school that she could marry a princess. Back in the ad is Richard Peterson, a law professor at Pepperdine University, despite the university's demanding last week that all references to Pepperdine be removed from the ad.

The campaign to ban gay marriage in California is running a television ad starting Wednesday featuring a girl telling her mother she learned in school that she could marry a princess.

Richard Peterson, a law professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, appears on-screen asking, "Think it can't happen? It's already happening. When Massachusetts legalized marriage, schools started teaching second-graders that boys can marry boys. The courts ruled that parents have no right to object."

An announcer then says that California would also require schools to teach children about same-sex relationships if gay marriage remained legal in the state. Opponents of gay marriage are backing Proposition 8, which would amend California's constitution to nullify the state supreme court decision that gave same-sex couples equal marriage rights.

Last week, Pepperdine president Andrew Benton ldemanded that the organization behind the commercial, Protect Marriage, remove all references to the school in another ad featuring Peterson. "The reference to Pepperdine must disappear," Benton told the Los Angeles Times on Friday.

This week's ad has a small disclaimer below his name that says Peterson's title is for "identification purposes only."

"The first thing the Yes on 8 people did was remove Pepperdine [in last week's commercial]," Jerry Derloshon, Pepperdine's executive director of public relations, told The Advocate on Thursday. "What the campaign has done is put in a disclaimer. Many people have accepted that this was a faculty member speaking a position and his employer was identified. The disclaimer underscores that Pepperdine remains neutral."

Equality California executive director Geoff Kors told reporters Tuesday that the Yes on 8 campaign is raising more funds than the opposition and that poll numbers are tipping toward support for the ban. (Michelle Garcia, The Advocate)

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Name: Jerry
Date posted: 10/10/2008 1:23:00 AM
Hometown: Los Angeles

Comment:
I have donated in the past to Pepperdine - they won't get another nickel from me. Who do they think they're fooling anyway? Since they have no problems associating themselves with such legal "brains" as Richard Peterson, they probably don't want my money anyway.
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Name: Bill H.
Date posted: 10/9/2008 4:42:00 PM
Hometown: Malibu, CA

Comment:
Negative ads work, and the people pushing for passage know that if they frighten enough people, Prop 8 will pass. And no, regardless of what Jerry Derloshon says, the disclaimer does NOT make Pepperdine neutral- it puts them squarely and officially on the side in favor of Prop 8's passage. The christianists, (mormons, Bishop Mahoney, etc) think they can get away with throwing mud, knowing that some of it will stick. They're fear mongers, and what they're doing is distinctly non-Christian. We need ads that will make the public sympathetic to the problems gay couples face in stabilizing their relationships. I find it remarkable that even prisoners on death row can get a license to marry, as long as they're heterosexual!
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Name: Tom
Date posted: 10/9/2008 3:00:00 PM
Hometown: SF Bay Area

Comment:
Couldn't agree with you more, Jack. The lies in the "YES" ads are really quite disturbing, and need to be FORCEFULLY rebutted. Not hearing many ads at all around here, probably because both sides know we are the epicenter of "NO" territory in the state. But I have heard a small number of "YES" ads on radio stations with strong signals that reach well into the Central Valley.
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Name: Jack
Date posted: 10/9/2008 2:41:00 AM
Hometown: Los Angeles

Comment:
Just saw the ad on ch.4 in LA, at 11:10pm (10/8). apparently Richard Peterson doesn't care if he drags Pepperdine University's name through the mud. It's the kind of negative nonsense that is guaranteed to frighten parents, who may vote 'Yes' just in case some of the lies might turn out to be true. Have to say I'm disappointed in our "warm & fuzzy" ads. Would like to see something more hard-hitting: a hospital door slamming in the face of a gay man, stopped by his mate's parents from visiting in a hospital; the contesting of a will in a courtroom, in which a deceased man's deeding of property to his mate is denied by a judge, and given instead to the homophobic sister of his mate (I know this happened for real); and other situations in which being married makes a difference in our society and demands the kind of respect civil unions simply don't establish.

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