It seems genuine to me:
I live in a small world – the world of entertainment, musicians, writers – in which gayness is as common as having brown eyes. Ever since I was in college, gay men and women have been friends, associates, heroes, adversaries, and in that small world, we talk openly and we kid each other and think nothing of it. But in the larger world, gayness is controversial. In almost every state, gay marriage would be voted down if put on a ballot. Gay men and women have been targeted by the right wing as a hot-button issue. And so gay people out in the larger world feel beseiged to some degree.
In the small world I live in, they feel accepted and cherished as individuals, but in the larger world they may feel like Types. My column spoke as we would speak in my small world and it was read by people in the larger world and thus the misunderstanding. And for that, I am sorry. Gay people who set out to be parents can be just as good parents as anybody else, and they know that, and so do I.
Maybe if Keillor had mentioned his own three marriages in a swipe at gay marriage, the humor would have been more self-evident. By the way, this was essentially Ann Coulter’s defense as well – "some of my best closeted gay friends use the word ‘faggot’ ironically." But she could not say it as Keillor has – because it would deeply alienate the people she needs to buy her books, and because she is an enthusiastic part of a movement that wants to keep gay people marginalized and stigmatized. Keillor has an escape clause. Coulter can’t use hers.
The Dish 