READ THE ORIGINAL POST ON CBSNEWS.COM
When California Proposition 8 passed during the 2008 elections, celebrity photographer Adam Bouska and his partner Jeff Parshley were participating in rallies and protests in West Hollywood but were still looking for more ways to speak out.
One night, Bouska took a picture of Parshley with duct tape on his mouth and the word "NOH8" drawn on his cheek and uploaded the image to Facebook.
"The symbolization behind the duct tape symbolizes how people's voices weren't being heard," said Bouska. "When the majority has the right to vote on the rights of a minority, the majority will always have the upper hand. There's a lot of problems with that to begin with, so we're raising awareness through imagery for that."
The picture started circulating among friends, and soon enough other people expressed interest in lending their faces to the cause. Private shoots in his studio with 40 friends evolved to six-hour open shoots involving 500 people.
Bouska has now taken over 6,200 of the NOH8 photos, some of which have included celebs like the Kardashians, radio personality Dr. Drew Pinsky, Deepak Chopra and even Cindy McCain, the wife of Republican Sen. John McCain.
I spoke to Bouska and Parshley in their studio in Los Angeles about the campaign. While a judge recently overturned Prop 8, they're stilling looking to continue to spread the word.
"Currently it's still not legal for a same sex marriage right now," Parshley told me. "Really nothing's changed. The repeal of Prop 8 being unconstitutional, we feel like is the right step in the right direction, but there's a long way to go. Even if it does pass in California, there are a ton of states who don't have marriage equality, that you can be fired for being gay, 'Don't Ask Don't Tell,' adoption, there's a lot of other issues than marriage equality. We want people to be aware that these issues are going on. It's not a California issue, it's a human rights issue. If this could happen to one minority group, it can happen to any minority group."
For more info and to upload your own picture, go to NOH8Campaign.com.