Leave it to the Aussies to come up with the ad that LGBT activists have clamored for throughout all our fights with the fundie-bangelicals over our basic human right to marriage equality. Every time our own USA organizations launch a marriage equality advertising campaign, their ads focus on straight allies, supportive relatives of LGBT couples, or members of the political class: hardly ever do we see affected couples.

This was the strength at the heart of the plaintiffs’ argument in the Prop 8 federal case: in Judge Vaughn Walker’s courtroom, we got to know the two couples as if they were neighbors or work mates. And America learned they are just like everyone else.

This ad takes a novel approach: the camera is on only one member of the couple in a budding (and then committed) relationship until the very last frame. We see them meet, date, grow together, live life precious and mundane, then visit family and — finally — propose. It could be any couple; it could be a diamond ad, a travel commercial, it could be selling insurance. Try to imagine how this ad, or one like it, might play on the American airwaves, especially for viewers who don’t know how it turns out or even what it’s for.

Would it catch your attention? Would it change minds? Would it engage voters on the fence?

Oh — and would you like a tissue?