150 Reasons to Have Pride in 2010

BECAUSE ROB REINER IS NOW ALL IN THE FAMILY
Whenever socially
conservative cable-news pundits spit out the phrase “Hollywood liberal”
(translation: “vile reprobate”), they’re usually referring to either
George Clooney, Sean Penn, or Rob Reiner, whose crusades for early
education and against the tobacco industry are legendary. But it wasn’t
until Proposition 8 left its dirty fingerprints up and down the state of
California that gay rights became a chief concern for the 63-year-old
director. “It was an eye-opener,” Reiner says. “It’s the last big piece
of the civil rights puzzle.” Reiner was instrumental in raising funds
for the legal challenge to Prop. 8, currently wending its way through
the federal courts. One of the plaintiffs, Kristin Perry, is a longtime
colleague of Reiner’s and the current executive director of First 5, a
childhood development program funded by cigarette taxes—the result of
California antitobacco ballot initiatives that Reiner spearheaded.