How We Talk About Marriage

The NYT is debating the Miss California USA answer on marriage equality. Dan Savage:

Anti-gay attitudes — whatever motivates them — are increasingly less popular. No contestant would stand on that stage and argue for a ban on interracial marriage or come to the defense of a country clubs that banned Jewish members or condemn single mothers. All those positions were once considered thoroughly respectable, and people could argue for them on TV — pundits, candidates, beauty pageant contestants — without fear or repercussion. Not true today. It’s not that there are racial thought police, or anti-Semitic thought police, or single-mom thought police. It’s just that times and attitudes change.