NEW JERSEY – A $1.5 million ad campaign against same-sex marriage kicked off Wednesday in New Jersey. The effort is sponsored by the National Oranization for Marriage, a nonprofit that seeks to “protect marriage and the faith communities that sustain it.”

As reported by NJ.com, the organization is “targeting New Jersey in the advertising buy — along with Iowa, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont — because it is one of the hottest battlegrounds on the issue right now.”

The campaign quickly was denounced by The Human Rights Campaign, which advocates on a national basis on behalf of gays, lesbians and transgender individuals.

“Again and again, opponents of equality have claimed one shallow victory after another by telling lies about who we are as individuals, as loving couples and as families,” organization spokesman Brad Luna told NJ.com. “These lies must be called out for what they are every time the right wing seeks to derail our progress by spreading distortions and inciting fear mongering.”