Former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming appeared in a new television ad supporting marriage equality.
“I’m a Republican and the party’s basic core is government out of your life and the right to be left alone. Whether you’re gay or lesbian or straight, if you love someone, and you want to marry them, marry them,” Simpson says in the national ad, paid for by Freedom to Marry. The organization launched in 2003 as part of the marriage movement.
“I have had a wonderful married life, why shouldn’t somebody else have the joy of marriage? Live and let live. It is very simple,” he added.
The video launched Tuesday, two days before a three-judge panel inside the 10th Circuit of Appeals in Denver, Colo., listens to hearings and rulings to decide the constitutionality of laws banning same-sex marriage in Utah and Oklahoma. The Supreme Court of the United States last summer struck down the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8, major victories for supporters of gay rights.
Simpson is one of 20 western Republicans who signed a brief in opposition to the ban on marriage equality and presented it to the appeals court. The 30-second spot is set to air on national cable, network Sunday political shows, and in certain markets throughout Colorado, Oklahoma, and Wyoming, according to Freedom to Marry. From President Obama to former Vice President Dick Cheney, many prominent figures from both parties have come forward within the past few years to publicize their change of heart on marriage rights.
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