“The freedom to marry is spreading. So it’s time for America’s biggest, red-beard-iest prime-time couple to get hitched in front of millions of American viewers.” So reads part of the home page of a new campaign launched by ACLU Action to convince the writers and producers of ABC’s Modern Family to write a wedding episode for popular gay characters Mitchell Pritchett (portrayed by Jesse Tyler Ferguson, left in photo) and Cameron Tucker (Eric Stonestreet, right in photo).
The campaign comes as Americans await the Supreme Court’s decisions on two important marriage equality cases, the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and Prop 8 cases — the ACLU is direct counsel in the DOMA case, United States v. Windsor — and as a stream of states pass marriage equality measures (12 states and the District of Columbia already have marriage equality, with Rhode Island, Delaware and Minnesota passing legislation within the past two weeks; Illinois is expected to follow shortly). The Supreme Court cases are expected to be decided this summer.
The ACLU cites a March ABC News/Washington Post poll that showed that 58 percent of the nation supports marriage equality with only 36 percent opposed as part of the momentum it believes could be continued with this Modern Family campaign.
“The freedom to marry is being advanced in American living rooms as much as in court rooms,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “As we wait for the Supreme Court to rule, we want to keep this issue on the minds and screens of Americans everywhere.”
The “America Wants to See Cam & Mitch Get Hitched on Modern Family” campaign asks supporters, including the ACLU’s 750,000 online supporters, to “RSVP” that they will watch Cam and Mitch get married, to let Modern Family producers know that a wedding episode would be a ratings hit. ACLU Action says it plans to deliver its “guest list” created by the RSVPs to the producers of Modern Family, Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, as they and the writers are scripting next season’s episodes.
The campaign also hopes to put marriage equality before new and younger audiences through social media channels.
“The ACLU has been working since 1936 to guarantee the rights of lesbian and gay people, and we see sending Cam and Mitch down the aisle before 13 million American viewers as the perfect next step,” Romero said.
More information on the campaign is at ModernFamilyWedding.com.
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Modern Family: © 2013 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Credit: Richard Foreman
