Political Organization Steals Same-Sex Engagement Photo To Use In Mailer Questioning ‘Family Values’

Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere were understandably shocked to find a picture from their engagement party end up in a Colorado political mailer demonizing same-sex marriage. The New Jersey couple, who is married, didn’t even take the picture in front a bunch of evergreens. Those were photoshopped in to make the picture, set against the New York skyline, look like it actually took place in Colorado.

Now, with the help of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the couple is suing the distributors of that mailer, Public Advocate of the United States, and the company’s president, Eugene Delgaudio. Obviously, the lawsuit will explore copyright laws and damages done to the couple who simply posted an happy picture to share with friends and family on their personal blog. Hopefully, justice will be served and Public Advocate will be made to stop using photography that doesn’t belong to them.

But more than that, more than the simple legality of the issue, it’s so disheartening to see a memory of couple’s happiest time used to promote a sad notion that “families” can only be defined one way.

The fact is, there are lots of families around this country. They all look different. It doesn’t matter the sex of the partners, it doesn’t matter the number of children, or if there are any, or if there’s a legal certificate labeling them as  family. The entire country would do a much better job of supporting and accepting one another if we could move past the antiquated and cookie-cutter idea that a family needs to look a certain way. One mom, one dad, one daughter, one son and a puppy for good luck.

Families are changing. We, as a country, need to find a way to support the new make-up of our families. We need to stop assuming that “family values” only apply to heterosexual, traditional families with one dad and one mom.

We all have family values. We all have people we love and care about it. And we’re all going to do better if we support and encourage families, no matter how they’re made up. I hope that Brian and Tom get the justice they’re looking for. But even more than that, I think they would agree with me in hoping that we can all move past this restrictive idea of “family values” only applying to certain families.

(Photo: LGBTQNation)