SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - September 22 - Equality California will launch a new television advertising campaign to educate Californians about Meg Whitman and Steve Cooley's pledge to defend Proposition 8 in court and urging them to change their position. Whitman, the Republican gubernatorial candidate, and Cooley, candidate for attorney general, have both publicly stated that they would defend Prop. 8 in the federal court case challenging the constitutionality of the measure.

"Meg Whitman and Steve Cooley have stated that they would spend California's limited tax dollars in litigation to overturn the Federal District Court's ruling that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional," said Geoff Kors, executive director for Equality California. "It is unconscionable that they would use state resources to take away the rights of Californians at a time when our state is cutting vital services and laying off teachers. We are calling on Californians to urge Whitman and Cooley to change their position and to pledge not to waste our state's precious resources to perpetuate inequality."

Governor Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Brown have both refused to defend Prop. 8 in court.

The ads are set to begin airing on Monday, September 27, and will run on the CNN, FOX and MSNBC affiliates in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego and Palm Springs metropolitan areas.

A U.S. federal district judge overturned Prop. 8 in August on the grounds that the ban prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying is unconstitutional. In December, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case.

To watch the ads, please visit www.eqca.org/shame.