Bill O'Reilly Vaguely Endorses Gay Marriage

Bill O’Reilly might be considered a leading voice for the Republican Party, but that doesn’t mean he always walks the company line on every issue. In fact, like a growing segment of right-leaning Americans, he’s come to the defense of the gay community on several occasions, most notably when One Million Moms demanded JC Penney fire Ellen DeGeneres for being a lesbian. At the time, O’Reilly called the group’s demand a “witchhunt” and fundamentally “against the spirit of America”. Earlier this week, while not nearly as aggressively, he echoed those same basic sentiments when the topic of gay marriage came up.

Here’s what he told his co-worker/ former attorney Megyn Kelly when she said gay marriage advocates make a far more convincing case for legalizing than opponents do for condemning the practice.

"I agree with you 100%. The compelling argument is on the side of homosexuals. That’s where the compelling argument is. We’re Americans -- we just want to be treated like everyone else. That’s a compelling argument, and to deny that you’ve got to have a very strong argument on the other side. And the other side hasn’t been able to do anything but thump the Bible.”

The world is changing. Younger generations solidly approve of gay marriage, and even a healthy percentage of older people are starting to move that way. Hopefully, O’Reilly’s public stance will force many Americans to reexamine the issue and potentially take a more tolerant approach to letting their fellow citizens achieve true equality.

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Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.