This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The dominoes are falling, fast. Bob Ross reported that talk show host Bill O'Reilly now supports gay marriage ("Strong families," Forum, April 1).
Last week, blowhard Rush Limbaugh admitted and lamented: "The issue is lost. I don't care what the Supreme Court does, this is now inevitable. … We lost the issue when we started allowing the word 'marriage' to be bastardized and redefined. … Once we started talking about 'gay marriage,' 'traditional marriage,' 'opposite-sex marriage,' 'same-sex marriage,' 'hetero-marriage,' we lost."
Limbaugh's right about the inevitability of gay marriage, except the war isn't lost; it's won. And the cause wasn't language, it was empathy and understanding.
Once Americans started acknowledging that gays aren't an alien species but are indeed human beings with the same feelings and yearnings — and rights — as everyone else, then the American sense of fair play inevitably kicked in.
It's taken America an embarrassingly long while to realize that our foundational political belief that all are created equal truly means everyone — property-less men, blacks, women and now gays. One nation, indivisible, under God, with liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.
This is something not to be lamented, but celebrated as all-American.
Matthew Anderson
Park City