Delgaudio (Via Friends of Delgaudio)

The Southern Poverty Law Center is going forward with its plans to sue the Falls Church, Va. organization Public Advocate of the United States over a direct-mail campaign that sent Colorado voters a doctored version of a New York gay couple’s engagement photo.

In July, the SPLC announced it had taken up the case of Brian Edwards and Tom Privitere, who stunned to learn that their photo had been edited by Public Advocate to campaign against Colorado State Sen. Jean White’s support for civil unions. White, a Republican, lost her party’s primary election in June, three weeks after voters in her district were bombarded with direct mail featuring an edited image of Edwards and Privitere kissing against a snowy, Rocky Mountain backdrop. White, in an interview with DCist, said she believed the mailers were “solely responsible for my defeat.”

Public Advocate is headed by Eugene Delgaudio, who is also a member of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. After learning their treasured photo had been doctored, Edwards and Privitere reached out to the SPLC, which issued a cease-and-desist letter to Public Advocate on July 23.

The letter appears to have done little as the SPLC, which classifies Delgaudio’s outfit as a hate group, plans to file a lawsuit tomorrow in U.S. District Court for Colorado.

“Public Advocate, a group identified as a hate group by the SPLC, used the couple’s personal engagement photo without permission and altered the image to include anti-gay propaganda to attack Colorado state lawmakers including Sen. Jean White, who supported Colorado’s civil union legislation,” an SPLC news release reads.

Edwards, Privitere and SPLC deputy legal director Christine P. Sun will brief reporters tomorrow on a conference call.