Summoning his best Bill O'Reilly impression, the satirical host of The Colbert Report announced last night that "gay people are winning the war" over same-sex marriage. Colbert quipped, "Ever since the Supreme Court ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconsitutional, more and more states have run their own same-sex bans through the Grindr." In fact, 19 states and the District of Columbia now recognize same-sex marriage.
Colbert invited litigators David Boies and Theodore Olson, the legal team that helped strike down Proposition 8 in California, to discuss their new book, Redeeming the Dream: The Case for Marriage Equality. Boies and Olson started as political foes and argued against each other in the Supreme Court case of Bush v. Gore in 2000 but then joined forces to defeat the California ban on same-sex marriage.
Colbert asked about their political differences. "How can the two of you be friends? You fought on either side of Bush v. Gore. You came together to fight for same-sex marriage rights and you've won every case so far. What is so compelling about your argument that you would come together from different sides of the political spectrum to fight for this?"
Olson explained, "The thing that influenced David and me the most is that we're in a country where we're discriminating against our fellow citizens. We're telling them that they're not entitled to be treated the same."
Colbert shot back with a joke. "We do treat them the same. None of them can get married to each other. That's called 'equal protection.' I got married as a taunt to gay people."
"Gay and lesbian people are treated differently," said Olson. "They are perceived as second-class citizens and their relationships didn't count. It was damaging to them and damaging to their children. It's not something that's trivial."
Watch Colbert talk about how LBGT people are winning the marriage equality war.
And the full interview with Boies and Olson: