In 2004, in one of our earliest posts on this site (our 15th, in fact) we declared “gay marriage” to be a “done deal”.
Six years later, in late 2010, after a number of good court decisions in the week or two prior, largely in regard the military’s now-defunct discriminatory “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, we wrote:
Well before the end of this decade (and likely far sooner than that, perhaps even before the end of Obama’s first term in office), marriage equality for gays and lesbians will be recognized in every state in the union, and homosexuals will be as welcome in our nation’s military as African-Americans.
It’s over. The good guys have won. In these quiet victories of rights over wrongs, we can all take some quiet comfort, even in these maddening, ugly days.
The bad guys may not have come to terms with it yet, they may not have even noticed yet, but they have lost.
Well, as of this week, it looks like “the bad guys” finally have noticed and are in the process of coming to terms with it…
On Tuesday, Bill O’Reilly, long a foe of marriage equality, finally admitted on his own show that “The compelling argument is on the side of homosexuals. That’s where the compelling argument is. ‘We’re Americans, we just want to be treated like everybody else.'”
“That’s a compelling argument.,” he reiterated. “And to deny that, you’ve got to have a very strong argument on the other side. And the other side hasn’t been able to do anything but thump the Bible.”
Without reminding his viewers about his previous position, he declared, “The gay marriage thing, I don’t feel that strongly about it one way or the other. I think the states should do it. … New York has it now. I live in New York, New York has it, I’m fine with it. I want all Americans to be happy, I do.”
Well, good for him for finally being right, even if he has too outsized of an ego to admit how long he’s been wrong.
But the deal was finally done on Thursday, when Rush Limbaugh, the national arbiter of Republicanism, finally saw the writing on the wall…
“This issue is lost,” he proclaimed. “I don’t care what the Supreme Court does, this is now inevitable.”
Limbaugh went on to say that the inevitability of marriage equality was only “because we lost the language on this.” So he’s still got a bit of denial to deal with. But, nonetheless, even El Rushbo now concedes that rights — and the Constitution — have won, and he has lost in his fight against both, yet again.
And happily, I suppose, those fuckwits Limbaugh and O’Reilly may come to the grips with the fact that there’s a country to run.
Naaaah.
Rush Limbaugh, social conservatives, evangelicals, and other supporters of “traditional marriage” have lost NOTHING. Let me reassure them: Absolutely NOTHING is happening to “traditional marriage” as it applied to Straight (i.e. heterosexual) couples. Nothing is being “redefined.” Most people will always be Straight, and they will continue to date, get engaged, marry, and build lives and families together as they always have. None of that is going to change when Gay couples are allowed to do the same.
And ten years from now, people will wonder what all the fuss was about.
Nice call there in 2004, Brad. Sadly, many cling to the words of those who history has proven wrong, rather than paying attention to those proven right. Some of us notice, though. Good job.
There is a significant prospect that the DOMA and Prop 8 cases will not only establish marriage equality as a fundamental right, but a ruling that all laws that discriminate against individuals on the basis of sexual orientation are suspect and, as in the case of race based discrimination, subject to strict scrutiny.
But we have a long way to go on ending the GOP “war on women,” assuring equal pay regardless of gender, and ending the phoney but bi-partisan “war on drugs.”
I find his choice of words interesting: “And the other side hasn’t been able to do anything but thump the Bible.” HE WAS “the other side.” They “lost the idea war” because they had no ideas. Thanks for staying on top of this over the years, and you’re certainly entitled to this something-like a victory lap.
Also want to send up applause since I’ve been coming here since 2004, and your work on the voting machine/hack the vote scams has been stellar! Every time I link to this site on the comment streams the wingnuts go wild! So you must be doing something right……
The right wingers seem to have lost practically all of their battles. Right now the only one they may be winning, at least temporarily, is about abortion.
Actually O’Reilly has supported civil unions much like those other recently converted “haters” Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama …
I understand that running a piece about the hated O’Reilly and Limbaugh is a sure fire way to stir up the (few) masses but who really gives a shit about a couple of pundits. Wanna talk about who lost? Talk about the overwhelming support of democrats in both houses for DOMA, talk about the president who signed it into law…. who cares what Limbaugh thinks
Steve Snyder said @ 7:
If you’re looking for my disapproval of them on this, particularly Hillary, I’m pretty sure I had a few words on that in last week’s BradCast, but I don’t recall those “haters” saying stuff like this, did the? (These are from O’Reilly):
April 14, 2005: “We told you this would happen, if gay marriage is legalized, then much chaos would follow.”
Steve Snyder said @ 8:
Um…Let’s see, Limbaugh has (supposedly) about 15 million listeners a week, as the number 1 radio show in America for a decade or more. O’Reilly has (I don’t know how many) millions of listeners each week as the number 1 cable TV news show in America for a decade or more.
Apparently quite a few people care what they think.
Again, I have done so before. Not sure what that has to do with the article above, in truth. But you are more than welcome to rail on the outrage of Bill Clinton and the Congress which signed DOMA, and I’ll be more than happy, most likely, to agree with you.