Is Keith Olbermann Gay Rights Advocates’ Best Friend?

MSNBC’s 49 year-old anchorman Keith Olbermann has gone to bat for gay rights and gay marriage probably more times than any other news personality. Most recently, his interview on Tuesday’s Countdown, with Candace Gingrich, sister of right-wing former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, and LGBT rights activist in her own right for the Human Rights Campaign, Olbermann stated “After protests and pleas, if the vote were taken tomorrow, Prop 8 would be defeated.” And then, “I still don’t understand that there’s any vote on the other side.”

Olbermann’s November 10th “Special Comment”, which Ellen Degeneres called “brilliant and eloquent”, certainly cemented his support of gay rights and gay marriage in the minds of Americans. A statement entitled, “Gay marriage is a question of love”, called Prop 8 “horrible” and asked those who voted for Proposition 8 simply asked “What is this to you?” Then offered:

“The parents of the President-Elect of the United States couldn’t have married in nearly one third of the states of the country their son grew up to lead. But it’s worse than that. If this country had not “re-defined” marriage, some black people still couldn’t marry black people. It is one of the most overlooked and cruelest parts of our sad story of slavery. Marriages were not legally recognized, if the people were slaves. Since slaves were property, they could not legally be husband and wife, or mother and child. Their marriage vows were different: not “Until Death, Do You Part,” but “Until Death or Distance, Do You Part.” Marriages among slaves were not legally recognized.

You know, just like marriages today in California are not legally recognized, if the people are gay.“

 

This was not the first time Olbermann has come out in support of gays. His January 21, 2005 segment entitled, “Will SpongeBob make you gay?” rallied against James Dobson and the attack by Focus on the Family on SpongeBob SquarePants for allegedly being part of a “pro-homosexual video”.

Olbermann’s frequent guests include Michael Musto, Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank, and Rachel Maddow, whom Olbermann is said to have been responsible for helping secure her own show on MSNBC, “The Rachel Maddow Show”.