Morgan Freeman, ‘the voice of God’, does voice work for the Human Rights Campaign

The Human Rights Campaign is still dizzy from its FOUR victories in 2012 election – Maryland, Maine and Washington State approved gay marriage ballot measures, and the state of Minnesota failed to outright ban gay-marriage, which was also on that state’s ballot this year. But the fight for equal marriage rights (and larger equality rights) is still going strong. So the Human Rights Campaign has begun to air a new commercial, and they’re getting some help from the man who is known as “the Voice of God.” In fact, Gawker’s headline was “‘God’ Is Now Supporting Gay Marriage”. Morgan Freeman, 75, is letting it be known that he believes in full marriage equality by doing an HRC voiceover. Which is awesome:

Invoking iconic imagery of women’s suffrage and Martin Luther King Jr., the nation’s largest LGBT group will begin airing a television ad on Sunday morning news shows highlighting this month’s votes on marriage equality as momentum for further movement on the issue.

“Now, across our country, we’re standing together for the right of gay and lesbian Americans to marry the person they love,” narrator Morgan Freeman says in the ad. “And, with historic victories for marriage, we’ve delivered a mandate for full equality. The wind is at our back, but our journey has just begun.”

The ad will be running throughout the coming week, Human Rights Campaign vice president Fred Sainz told BuzzFeed.

HRC president Chad Griffin said in a statement, “This year proved to be a pivotal turning point in the movement for marriage equality and now we press onward with renewed vigor and public opinion squarely on our side. As we continue the march toward full equality in legislatures and the courts, it is crystal clear that the prospect of an equal future is no longer up for debate; the question now is how soon it will arrive.”

The ad comes as the Supreme Court is due on Nov. 30 to consider whether it will hear cases in the coming year addressing whether the Defense of Marriage Act or California’s Proposition 8 are constitutional.

The strong push on the marriage front comes even as some others are pressing for HRC to highlight other issues, including workplace protections, in the wake of November’s elections.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would ban most private employers from discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender employees, remains unlikely to pass in Congress due to the House Republican leadership’s opposition. Advocates have pressed President Obama to take a first step and ban federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT people by executive order. Obama declined to do so in April, but advocates — including Griffin — have said that such an order is a key ask from the White House.

[From Buzzfeed]

It’s crazy to me that federal employees could be fired for being LGBT in this day and age. It’s insane to me that Pres. Obama failed to sign it as an executive order. And it’s flat-out crackie that Congress can’t pass a non-discrimination bill. Ugh. Well, I’m glad that Morgan Freeman is standing up for the gay community, even if there’s some serious sketchiness in his private life. Will the voice of God change things? I hope so… but mostly it just feels like every year, there are more and more people who simply don’t care enough to want to discriminate, you know? Is a general apathy towards the human rights cause a victory? When people are like, “F—k it, I don’t really care who is allowed to marry or who does what to whom in their private life. It doesn’t affect me.”

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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11 Responses to “Morgan Freeman, ‘the voice of God’, does voice work for the Human Rights Campaign”

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  1. GoodCapon says:

    I could listen to his voice forever!

    As for marriage equality… I’m all for it! Sadly I think I’d be long gone by the time I’d see people in my country be able to marry whoever they like regardless of gender.

    • Justyna says:

      I don’t know where are you from, but the same situation is in my country. I come from Poland, which is still very catholic country and politicians just have no guts to do something that church might not aprove (despite the constitutional division of church and state). No to gay marriage, no to legal abortion etc. More and more citizens in general are pro-equality – we have gay and transgender deputies in our parliament but there is no way same sex marriage will be legal any time soon. Politicians are supposed to represent the will of their citizens but I doubt there is one single country in the world where that sentence is in accordance with the reality. But it’s great that influencial and respected people like Morgan Freeman try to make a change.

      • Justyna says:

        *I can’t edit. I meant transsexual not transgender. Transsexual woman who was born as a man, to be more precise.

      • GoodCapon says:

        I live in Asia but your country’s situation is the same as mine, particularly the ‘despite the constitutional division of church and state.’ The Church meddles so much it’s ridiculous.

        We are a very tolerant country towards homosexuals but that hasn’t been translated to paper yet.

  2. A says:

    Ugh. Both he and his step granddaughter replied that there was no truth to that rumor and that the reason he ignored it for so long was because he didn’t want to acknowledge that such a disgusting rumor existed…Yet that still persists.

  3. aims says:

    I have always felt that gay rights is the civil right movement of my generation. It should be a no brainer that everyone has equal . If two people fall in love, want to start a life together, then so be it. My hope is that 50 years from now, that everyone will be thinking, “what was the big deal?” The world didn’t fall apart when women and black people got a little bit of equality. And our world will still be intact when gays, finaly get some equality as well.

  4. KellyinSeattle says:

    I love Morgan Freeman’s voice!! Same w/ James Earl Jones…
    Alec Baldwin does a voice in the new movie (Rise of the Guardians; I think)….ugh. I want to see the movie but don’t know if I will. What’s next? Charlie Sheen doing voices? Probably….but Morgan Freeman and Denzel’s voices are my favorite…

  5. hannah says:

    Good for Freeman, but I can’t cheer the HRC. They have repeatedly organized against transgender and transsexual people to make gains for non-trans LBG people which to me is really messed up:

    http://www.bilerico.com/2009/02/hrc_throws_trans_health_equity_under_the.php