TV Station Relents, Gay Families Ad To Air

Last week KABC-TV in Los Angeles refused to run pro-gay family PSA's from Get To Know Us First during the inauguration, saying the clips were "too controversial." After the intervention of GLAAD, the station has relented and will now run the commercials. Via GLAAD's press release:

Los Angeles television station KABC announced today, following a meeting with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and the marriage equality group GetToKnowUsFirst.org, that it would begin to air an ad from GetToKnowUsFirst.org in primetime as early as Sunday, Jan. 25. The ABC-owned television station came under fire for refusing to air the ad during Tuesday’s inaugural coverage, for what a KABC ad exec cited at the time as “a very controversial topic” to air during “programming that will include large family audiences.”

“We are pleased that KABC was willing to meet and discuss this serious issue with us so quickly,” said GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano, “and that this important message about our families will be seen by KABC’s audiences in the days and weeks to come.” The 30-second ad initially rejected by KABC features two married African American men raising five children ages 6 to 25. However, the ad was broadcast before, during and after the inauguration in 42 of California’s 58 counties, where Proposition 8 garnered the majority of the vote. In Los Angeles, the ad appeared on NBC’s owned-and-operated affiliate KNBC.

The clips will run in primetime, but that massive inauguration audience will never come again.