Using The History Lesson In Miss USA Controversy

In three recent interviews on cable news shows this week, several distinguished guests speaking in support of marriage equality used a simple history lesson or referenced to religion-based bigotry in their arguments with obvious positive results in terms of presenting effective arguments.

The persons taking a position against marriage equality were no light-weights – conservative talk show host Dennis Prager of California; CNN's Roland Martin and Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.

Wayne Besen, Michelangelo Signorile and Perez Hilton each used these points very effectively.

Besen is founder of Truth Wins Out, which works to educate the public about the harm caused by the ex-gay ministry business and has worked to help promote CRISIS. Working to challenge the ex-gay ministry myth, Besen is very familiar with the harm caused by religion-based bigotry and prejudice.

Signorile is host of a talk show on Sirius radio and interviewed Mitchell Gold last fall on the book CRISIS and the work of Faith In America.

Hilton is a celebrity news blogger at perezhilton.com and of course was the judge who asked the question of Miss California during the Miss USA Pageant.

And we would be remiss if we didn't mention the fact that Kristen Dalton of North Carolina won the pageant and had a different answer to the question when asked on the Today Show.

"The beautiful thing about America is that we have the right to choose, we have the right to choose what partner we want to love, commit and spend the rest of our lives with. I think that all couples should be able to be recognized legally, and they should be able to enter into a union. Whether or not it should be defined as marriage, I don't know, I'll leave that up to the politicians."

Better but perhaps this episode will help Ms. Dalton come to know why it must be defined as a marriage – not the least of which is because marriage is a legally recognized union between to people who love each other and want to spend their life together.

Michelangelo Signorile on Anderson360 with Roland Martin

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Wayne Besen on Fox News with Bill O'Reilly

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Perez Hilton on Larry King with Dennis Prager

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