HOUSTON (AP) – Gay and lesbian rights groups unveiled a series of television ads using same-sex couples to speak against a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

The ads, which began airing in the Houston area last week, show local gay and lesbian couples talking about their relationships and their need to have recognized marriages to protect their families in times of illness or death. Some ads also feature the parents of a gay man who is married.

Proposition 2 would amend the Texas Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. It’s already banned by state law in Texas and more than a dozen other states.

Supporters of the amendment say it would safeguard that law from judicial challenges by defining marriage as between one man and one woman. There are an estimated 43,000 same-sex couples in Texas.

“This amendment is wrong and it gives you no right to tell me who I love, who I want to marry,” said Charlotte Simmons, a case worker with the Texas Department of Health and Human Services who appeared in some of the ads with her partner, Anita.

Dave Fleischer of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said the ads were unusual in featuring gay and lesbian couples. Ads in other states with similar campaigns avoided direct use of the words “gay” or “marriage.”

“We’re going in a different direction here,” Fleischer said. “If we’re honest with voters, that’s how we’ll earn their votes.”

Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel for the Liberty Legal Institute, which supports the ban, did not immediately return a telephone call from The Associated Press seeking comment on the ads.

Fleischer said the ad campaign, which cost about $200,000, would run in Houston. There were no immediate plans to run the ads in other Texas cities.

Fleischer said the ads were being run by all the local major network affiliates in Houston, except for ABC. He said he was told the ABC affiliate was not running ads from groups either for or against the proposition.

Rita Kirk, a professor of corporate communications and public affairs at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said while similar ads in other states by gay and lesbian rights groups have also been direct in portraying the issue of same-sex marriage, they usually tend to take a more highbrow and intellectual approach, asking if this is against the law then why is a constitutional amendment needed.