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According to the FCC, there’s nothing the agency can do to prevent this kind of content from being broadcast by legally qualified political candidates.
Viewers in media markets across the U.S. were confronted with an ad targeting LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights during the World Series this week that was so vile that stations aired a disclaimer before it.
The ad is sparking backlash for its inflammatory language and graphic content. Funded by Constitution Party presidential candidate Randall Terry, the ad aired on local Fox affiliates like Kansas City’s WDAF and triggered an on-air content warning from stations obligated to broadcast it under federal rules. Some ABC affiliates have also run the ad with a disclaimer.
In the ad, a speaker identifying as a Black pastor accuses Democrats of exploiting Black voters and promoting policies harmful to children, LGBTQ+ rights, and families. The speaker claims, “They have drag queens reading filth to our children, grooming them for sexual exploitation, mutilating their genitals, pushing same-sex marriage, killing our babies by the millions, [and] seducing us to destroy our families for a welfare check,” before concluding, “Don’t vote for Kamala [Harris] or any Democrat.” The ad includes graphic photos of disfigured fetuses.
GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, in a statement to The Advocate, criticized the ad as “shameful, so inaccurate, graphic, and extreme that it needed a warning label.”
She added, “Research and recent elections have shown that Americans are sick of anti-trans campaigning and reject anti-trans candidates at the ballot box. The extremists behind this ad unapologetically inject toxic rhetoric and images into the living rooms and homes of Americans already repulsed by their behavior and tactics, melding their deeply unpopular and violent anti-abortion history onto anti-LGBTQ ignorance and bigotry. Fortunately, it won’t work. Americans widely support reproductive rights and the fundamental freedom to be ourselves and be safe.”
More 2024 Election Coverage from The Advocate:
- Why The Advocate endorses Kamala Harris for president
- How pro-LGBTQ+ is Kamala Harris?
- Our 2024 LGBTQ+ voter guide
- Kamala Harris's 'first priority' as president
- Where does Donald Trump stand on LGBTQ+ rights?
- Kamala Harris: Our One-on-One With the Vice President
A Federal Communications Commission spokesperson told The Advocate that federal law requires broadcast stations to run most political ads. “The Federal Communications Commission’s authority in this area is limited by law. When Congress created the FCC in 1934, it provided statutory language that prohibited broadcast stations from censoring advertising by legally qualified candidates.”
The FCC enforces an “equal time” rule for candidate advertising on broadcast networks, preventing broadcasters from censoring ads from qualified campaigns. Exceptions to the equal-time provision allow candidates to appear in specific news programming without needing to offer equal time to other candidates. The FCC, however, retains some discretion in cases where candidates do not meet qualifying thresholds.
“The FCC and broadcast stations cannot disregard this statutory language, and only Congress can change it,” the spokesperson said, adding that stations may provide content disclaimers to alert viewers to potentially objectionable material.
Terry, a longtime figure in anti-abortion activism, has a history of militant tactics that have raised concerns among civil rights groups. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Terry’s organization, Operation Rescue, was at the center of violent and disruptive tactics during the 1980s and 1990s. Operation Rescue organized aggressive blockades and protests at abortion clinics, resulting in numerous arrests and contributing to an environment that encouraged violence. The SPLC noted that Terry’s rhetoric and actions helped galvanize a faction within the anti-abortion movement that adopted increasingly aggressive and violent tactics, with clinic blockades and harassment evolving into acts of arson and murder. The SPLC reports that Terry’s influence played a significant role in the movement’s most extremist, dangerous phase, which placed healthcare providers and patients at risk.
Recent data shows voters increasingly reject “mean-spirited” and divisive anti-trans ads. According to a Data for Progress survey, 54 percent of likely voters believe anti-trans ads have gone “out of hand,” and 74 percent say transgender people deserve dignity and respect. Voters in the poll expressed that their primary concerns remain focused on economic and health issues, not divisive cultural attacks.
