• McClatchy Newspapers via FortWayne.com, Monday, June 4, 2007 10 AM

A new ad campaign backing gay marriage uses photos of prominent couples like Jeb Bush, former Republican governor of Florida, and his Mexican-born wife, to mark the 40th anniversary of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that gave interracial couples the right to marry.The effort, from a coalition of groups, is aimed at spreading their contention that marriage is a civil right.

"We're honoring and celebrating something that just over 40 years ago some Americans said was immoral and wrong and could not happen," says Jimmy Creech, executive director of Faith in America, a gay-rights advocacy group that is paying for the campaign. "We're celebrating the wisdom that prejudice and bigotry was removed from the law books and Americans were given the right to marry the person they loved, regardless of race."

The campaign rolls out this week in Roll Call and Politico and features photos of interracial couples like golfer Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin, along with former U.S. Defense Secretary Bill Cohen and his wife, Janet Langhart. It notes that 16 states banned interracial marriages until the Supreme Court struck down the laws in 1967. "Jeb and Columba Bush couldn't marry today if discrimination were still the law of the land," one reads.

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