EBay Yanks Right to Marry Listing

Yesterday The Advocatespoke with Jamie Frevele, the New York sketch comic who listed her right to get married on eBay and planned to donate the proceeds to a gay youth charity in response to the New York state senate's vote against marriage equality.

But just as bidding topped $300 Wednesday evening, the auction was yanked, Frevele told The Advocate via e-mail.

"EBay pulled the listing tonight," she writes. "I'm going to try to find something else. It had raised over $300. Any suggestions are welcome, because I really don't enjoy people pulling the plug on me like that"

EBay offered Frevele several reasons for canceling her auction -- in several different e-mails.

One e-mail cites a a company policy that doesn't allow people to auction off items that don't "physically exist." In another, eBay says Frevele is required to list all items benefiting a charity through eBay's "Giving Works" division.

In still a third e-mail, eBay claims the item was yanked because the website does not allow people to list items that "include personal opinions, political views, or offensive comments about eBay members."

In her listing Frevele said that as an unmarried, heterosexual woman who doesn't plan to use her right to marry, she'd like it to go to one of the many gays and lesbians who aren't allowed to get married in the state of New York.

"I would like to sell it to the highest bidder and donate the proceeds to an organization that supports LGBT rights since the government designed to protect all of us is picking and choosing based on what they think is icky, weird, or unknown to them," the listing read.

Frevele had planned to donate the money raised as auction to the Point Foundation, a nonprofit that provides scholarships to gay teens who aren't getting financial support for college from their families.

"I'm nowhere near being done with this, so if someone wants to sponsor this auction or a fund-raiser (though I like the auction idea, personally), I would really love to hear from them," she told The Advocate.