Link to Huffington Post posting
The marriage equality campaign has picked up backing from two very unlikely sources. Two well known Fox News anchors, Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck, have come out in support of marriage equality, although somewhat tepidly. O'Reilly uses logic to validate his own conclusion that there should be marriage equality. He states that homosexuals have "the compelling argument" and that opponents cannot come up with a logically based opposition to gay marriage. He accuses them of "thumping the Bible" instead of formulating a cogent set of arguments to in favor of upholding the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 in California, the statutes that are currently being debated in the Supreme Court. Although O'Reilly has always been a strong supporter of civil unions for same-sex couples, his support has not reached this far before.
Glenn Beck also has come to support the "principle" of same-sex marriage. This comes after, even just last year, Beck has made statements accusing gays of "destroying" the institution of marriage. Beck's backing for marriage equality comes as a bit of a shock because he a recent convert to Mormonism, a church not especially known for its tolerance of homosexuals.
The support of Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly essentially confirms what Rush Limbaugh predicted earlier this year; that gay marriage is going to happen eventually across the country. Limbaugh's begrudging admission is just the tip of the iceberg of good news for the campaigners for marriage equality. In the past, Fox News would never have touched the issue of gay marriage because, rightly so, they saw it as a losing issue for conservatives. Now that Fox News is now even just mentioning gay marriage on the air is a milestone in the United States' eventually acceptance of gay marriage. A major question concerning Fox News' newfound tolerance of gay marriage is how will their everyday viewers see the shift in tone? Many of the long time Fox News watchers may not be as keen to accept this change as something that is a virtual must do if Fox wants to be a credible news source in the future. This could hurt Fox in the short term by alienating their base support, but long term it is a definite win. I see this as the moment when historians will look back on and say 'this is when supporters of DOMA lost the debate on marriage.' This is also an issue where it is harder for the media to be objective on this topic. The norm is rapidly shifting toward an acceptance of gay marriage, so will the media in the future take serious the opponents of gay marriage and gay rights in general? Just like the media doesn't seriously entertain ideas of racial superiority. This seems to be the very beginning of having only one socially acceptable stance on this issue.
