Stop the Hate: Vote No on 8 

Robin Tyler, Frances Collier, Angela V. Shelton, Diane Olson

“I felt
compelled to make these PSAs,” Robin Tyler reflects
in an e-mail after a long day on the film set where,
at her urging, a parade of celebrities spoke out
on-camera against Proposition 8. “We have allowed
the radical right to brand ‘saving marriage for men
and women’ as a religious issue. We have to
rebrand the issue for what it is. This is not
spiritual. This is about hate, and it definitely will not
hurt our side to tell the truth.”

True to her
longtime feminist allegiances, Tyler’s homegrown ad
campaign will be a collaboration among women,
including Peg Yorkin and Katherine Spillar of the
Feminist Majority Foundation. A couple dozen actors and
activists were already on board for an August 17 shoot
organized by the FMF at the Beverly
Hills offices of Ms. magazine. The goal? To film
a series of ads supporting pro-choice and
pro-immigrant positions. Thanks to the volunteer
efforts of Tyler and the lesbian organization POWER UP,
which provided the crew, pro-gay also made the cut.

Nobody was sure
whether all the actors showing up for feminism --
including Tyne Daly, Christine Lahti, and Camryn
Manheim -- would do the same for gays. But everybody
did, with Tyler behind the reception desk banging out
speeches to suit each individual. Yet each one,
even those as short as one line, ended with
Tyler’s slogan: “Stop the hate. Vote no
on 8.”