The announcement ended a weeklong publicity campaign against the automaker by gay rights organizations that questioned whether Ford was curtailing its longtime support of them.

A company official said in a letter to gay leaders that Ford's thinking had evolved since a meeting between the automaker and gay leaders Monday, when the company would not say how it would address the gay community's complaints.

"It is my hope that this will remove any ambiguity about Ford's desire to advertise to all important audiences and put this particular issue behind us," said Joe W. Laymon, vice president of corporate human resources for Ford, in the letter to the leaders of seven of 19 organizations pressuring Ford.

The conservative American Family Association had announced that it would not resume a suspended boycott of Ford just before Ford confirmed Dec. 5 it planned to stop advertising Jaguar and Land Rover in Out, the Advocate and other publications.

The 19 gay rights organizations had asked to meet with Ford to discuss whether the threat of a boycott resulted in the decision to stop advertising in gay publications.

During the meeting, they asked whether Ford has new restrictions on its advertising directed at gays and lesbians.

"The best answer to your question will be in the ads themselves," Laymon said in the letter. "I would ask you to judge our intent by what you see."

The leaders also asked Ford to publicly reaffirm its commitment to diversity and inclusiveness, to continue donating money to gay and lesbian organizations and to restore advertising for Jaguar and Land Rover. And they objected to Ford's even meeting with the American Family Association.

Ford agreed to most of the demands, though Laymon said stopping the Jaguar and Land Rover ads was a business decision that would not change. Instead, he said, the automaker plans to run corporate advertisements in gay publications that feature all eight of its vehicle lines.

Gay leaders praised the letter, issuing a joint statement that called the company's actions "an unequivocal reaffirmation of Ford's historic commitment to our community and the core American values of fairness and equality. Moreover, it is conclusive proof of what Ford leaders have repeatedly assured us -- that there never was any deal with anti-LGBT organizations concerning Ford's support for our community."

Ford, one of the country' s most gay-friendly large corporations, consistently scores a perfect rating from the nation's largest gay rights organization, Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C., on its annual equality index. Daimler Chrysler Corp. and Toyota also received perfect scores in the latest review.

A spokeswoman for the American Family Association said her organization had no comment on Ford's letter. She said if her group were to resume the boycott it would announce the action by news release, and none was issued Wednesday.

The flap began Dec. 5, when a Ford spokesman confirmed that the company would stop advertising for Jaguar and Land Rover in gay publications. American Family Association had called off a threatened boycott in late November after discussing Ford's support for the same-sex marriage movement with company executives.

"We feel that our concerns are being addressed in good faith and will continue to be addressed in the future," Donald Wildmon, the leader of the association, said in announcing the boycott's end.

E-mail Wyatt Buchanan at wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle