'USA Next' Misappropriated
Couples' Image for Anti-Gay Ad Campaign
Business Wire
Feb. 28, 2005
WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 28, 2005--Conservative front
organization USA Next was accused today of illegally using a gay
couple's wedding photo in an anti-gay ad campaign supporting
President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security.
The couple in the photo, Richard M. Raymen and Steven P.
Hansen of Portland, Oregon, have come forward through an attorney
to demand that USA Next stop using their image, and that the
organization publicly apologize for using their image in a
homophobic and libelous way. The demand, contained in a letter
sent today to USA Next Chairman and CEO Charles Jarvis,
references the couples' right to seek damages for the
misappropriation of their image.
In one version of the USA Next advertisement disseminated
widely on the Internet last week, and aired repeatedly by
television news programs nationwide, the couple's image,
superimposed with a green checkmark, is side-by-side a picture of
a US soldier with a red "X" across it. Below the photos is the
phrase "The REAL AARP Agenda."
A copy of the ad can be viewed online here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/21/164929/948
"In 2004, our clients allowed their picture to be taken at
their public celebration, as couples getting married do every
day," Christopher Wolf, a partner in the Washington, DC office of
the New York-based law firm Proskauer Rose LLP and counsel for
Raymen and Hansen. "They did not volunteer to be models for a
2005 right-wing hate campaign, and never would have consented to
having their images plastered in an ad of any kind, much less the
one USA Next chose to run. USA Next has violated the law and must
take responsibility for the consequences. Tort law is quite clear
that USA Next acted illegally."
"The USA Next ad communicates the false message that gay
marriages generally, and our clients specifically, are the
antithesis of supporting American troops during wartime," said
Wolf. "Gay marriage, and our clients' ceremony, have nothing to
do with support of the troops. Our clients are patriotic
Americans who strongly support our service members."
USA Next's ad campaign has generated heated debate about the
organization. Raymen and Hansen have been the subject of
hate-filled messages and ridicule as a result of the ad campaign,
and have suffered a significant invasion of privacy.
"We never signed up to be Harry and Louise for a
hate-mongering group," Raymen said, referring to the fictional
couple used in television commercials to scuttle then-First Lady
Hillary Clinton's health care proposal. "USA Next is illegally
using our photo to portray us as a threat to American values. How
would any citizen like having their image stolen and broadcast
for the purpose of tarring our troops and suggesting that you're
un-American?"
On behalf of Raymen and Hansen, Wolf wrote USA Next today
demanding that the organization immediately stop using photos of
the couple and that it publicly apologize for the ongoing harm it
is causing.
"As our clients contemplate their full legal remedies, we are
writing to demand that you immediately cease and desist using any
photograph of our clients and that you publicly apologize to them
for the use you already have made, and the harm you have already
caused," Wolf wrote to USA Next.
Wolf said his clients seriously are considering filing suit
against USA Next but, regardless, use of the photo must stop.
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