“Gay people exist,” Maddow said to Reed, “there’s nothing that we can do that make more or less of us exist. And you’ve been arguing for a generation that public policy ought to essentially demean gay people as a way of expressing disapproval. But you don’t make any less of us exist. You just are arguing in favor of discrimination.”

“I really can’t let that go,” Reed responded. “This suggestion that because somebody wants to affirm the institution of marriage that they’re ipso facto intolerant, by that argument, Barack Obama was intolerant 14 months ago.”

Maddow pushed back on that, but I'm going to disagree with her on that. It was intolerant from Democrats too and just as unacceptable. It was based on ignorance (and religious teachings, which have no place in government policy) and is not any more acceptable. The difference being that the Democrats cited by Reed to try for cover for his current bigotry have gone through an evolution in thought (brought on in no small part by the tireless work of gay activists) and realized that creating a class of second class citizens in no way comported with the values of this country.

For the most part, the rest of the country has made that evolution too. Would that the Sunday news shows not give those who have yet to leave the primordial swamp of backwards thinking the validation and legitimization.