A New Jersey gay couple is suing a homopbobic organization that used their photo in anti-gay political advertisements without their permission.
When Tom Privitere and Brian Edwards posed for the photo shown here, they never thought it would turn into the one just below it.
The original photo, as you see here, caught the two gay men kissing with the New York City skyline behind them after they tied the knot in Connecticut.
According to the lawsuit, a group called Public Advocate used the photo to help defeat two pro LGBT candidates with ads titled: “with ads titled “State Senator Jean White’s Idea of ‘Family Values?’” and “Jeffrey Hare’s Vision for Weld County?”
Tom and Brian say that Public Advocate yanked the photo from the web and altered it (as you can see above) to spread a
“We want to take back the beautiful moment in our lives that was reflected in our engagement photo before it was hijacked,” Edwards, a 32-year-old college administrator living in Montclair, N.J., told NBC News on Monday before traveling to Colorado to file the lawsuit. “We also … want to take a stand for others who might be similarly targeted in the future.”
The couple filed a lawsuit against Public Advocate on behalf of Kristina Hill, the photographer who took the original photos and holds all rights to its use.
The men found out that their faces were being used to spread a “message of hate”" when a friend just happened to see them on an anti-gay political mailer.
[...] for using their pic in anti-gay ads Gay Socialites Thu, September 27, 2012 1:12 PM UTC Gay Socialites Rate Loading … Share (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); [...]
[...] Colorado anti-gay group did not have permission to use Brian and Tom’s photo. GaySocialites.com first reported on this case in September when the lawsuit was first [...]