Photo courtesy of Courtesy Jesse Ehrenfeld

A television station in Tennessee had no policy about airing commercials on same-sex marriage until executives received a submission this week. The 30-second spot, sponsored by the group Freedom to Marry, features Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, a gay soldier who just returned from a tour of duty working in a trauma hospital in Afghanistan — and wants to marry his partner.

“I’m a Republican, I’m a doctor, and I’m a soldier,” says a voice over by Ehrenfeld as the commercial shows images of him serving in uniform, and back at home with his boyfriend, Judd Taback. “As a military physician, I take care of other people’s loved ones who are wounded in combat. But here at home, I’m fighting a different fight. Because I’m gay, I’m not allowed to marry my partner here in Tennessee where we live.” When station executives saw the ad, they refused to run it.

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“It’s just a very controversial and personal issue, and we just choose to not air a commercial on either side of that debate,” Tom Tolar, the president and general manager of Chattanooga-based WRCB, told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview. The ad crossed the station’s lines, he explained, because “people probably have really strong opinions on one side or other of the debate. It’s just an emotional debate for many people.” The station, an NBC affiliate that also broadcasts in parts of Georgia and North Carolina, didn't have a position on ads about same-sex marriage until executives reviewed the commercial featuring Ehrenfeld on Wednesday, said Tolar. “We had not had a request before to run an issue-ad like that.” Ehrenfeld called the decision disappointing, saying that people in Tennessee — where same-sex couples are prohibited by law from marrying — are the ones who need to see the ad most.

“I respect that they have to manage their TV station as they see fit,” he said in a phone call with BuzzFeed News. “But it seems they just created this policy out of thin air when presented with this ad.”

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