America's Right-Wing Has Gone Gay Crazy

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http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/americas-right-wing-has-literally-gone-gay-crazy

In the 1930s, the hyper-religious were so freaked out by marijuana that they financed a propaganda film revolving around a group of high school students who murder, rape, kill themselves, or descend into madness after smoking pot. The film was titled Reefer Madness. Today, if you were to write a screenplay based on the rabid ramblings and legislative actions of the hyper-religious, it’d be Homosexual Madness.

When Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriage in 2004, only 39 percent of Americans favored the legislation. When President Obama came out in support of marriage equality during his 2012 reelection campaign, the nation was divided 50/50 on the issue. In 2013, the Pew Research Center found that for the first time since it began asking the question, a clear majority of Americans now support allowing gays and lesbians to wed.

Public Religion Research Institute chief executive Robert Jones said the poll joined a raft of other surveys showing that a majority of Americans back gay marriage. "As public opinion goes, we really rarely see this kind of movement on any issue over a decade's time," Jones said.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia now recognize gay marriage, with bans overturned in several states after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that legally married same-sex couples were eligible for federal benefits.