Ellen DeGeneres
has stepped up her participation in the No on Prop. 8
campaign by recording a TV ad asking voters to oppose the
proposed anti-gay marriage California constitutional
amendment.
Patrick
Guerriero, campaign director for No on 8, made that
announcement during a phone conference with LGBT press
on Tuesday.
"She's filmed an
ad that could be used in ways that we'll determine
over the next day or so. Certainly you'll see it on the Web
and virally, and potentially on TV," said Guerriero,
who read a transcript that he said is close to the
finished product.
"Hi, I'm
Ellen DeGeneres," Guerriero quoted from the
transcript. "I got to do something this year I
never thought I'd ever be able to do. I got married.
It was the happiest day of my life. There are people out
there raising millions of dollars to try to take that
right away from me. You've seen their ads on TV.
They're twisting the truth, and they're trying to
scare you. I believe in fairness. I believe in compassion. I
believe in equality for all people. Proposition 8 does not.
Please, please vote no on Prop. 8."
"I think you're
going to see some breakthrough gifts in the next few
days," Guerriero said. Since the No on Prop. 8 campaign put
out an SOS roughly a week ago, donations have been
running close to $1 million per day -- a remarkable
feat, he said, and one that has No on 8 poised to
cross the $20 million mark shortly.
However,
Guerriero stressed, donations need to keep rolling in at
that rate through Election Day, at least, in order to
get the pro-LGBT side back in the fight monetarily --
and of 1 million LGBT adults in California, only
30,000 have contributed so far -- and that not a single
LGBT demographic or region in the state had given what would
be required to win the battle.
"When you do the
math, if we have a million adults and we have 30,000
donors, that means 970,000 have not given a dollar yet," he
said. "That means there's not a single neighborhood,
there's not a single street, there's not a single
congressional district, there's not a single county
where we're getting enough support from LGBT Californians."
(Anne Stockwell -- The Advocate)
