Bill Donohue Sounds Off On Obama And Gay Marriage On Piers Morgan

Bill Donohue from The Catholic League faced-off with Chad Griffin of the Human Rights Campaign on CNN about President Obama's decision to support gay marriage.

Griffin began by explaining why President Obama's decision is important to gays and lesbians:

"What the President of the United States said today – the first President of the United States said today – is that he cares for them (LGBT people). He is their president, he is standing up for them and he believes that they too are equal under the law. And that is incredibly significant."

Keeping it classy, Bill Donohue took a different approach:

"Obama has always liked the idea of two men getting married. He had to change, because he wanted to become president and he said he invoked his Christian moorings. Now today he had to wiggle with that."

Donohue went on to implicitly compare gay marriage to incest, which Griffin rebuffed as ridiculous. When Piers Morgan asked Donohue what his personal problem with gay marriage was, Donohue explained:

Oh, it’s very simple. It’s absolutely very simple. I have a doctorate in sociology from NYU, and I know what the literature says. The literature is definitive. There is one gold standard, one gold standard for children. That is: there is no substitute for a marriage between a man and a woman. I want the law to discriminate against straight people who live together — I used to call it “shacking up,” but now it’s called cohabitation. I want the law to discriminate against all alternative lifestyles, against gays and unions. I want to promote and to put in a privileged position that institution of marriage between a man and a woman, which has been shown over and over to be the gold standard.

Think Progress countered Donohue's claim:

Donohue might want to revisit sociology before he makes such grandiose claims. Not a single study has compared married opposite-sex couples to married same-sex couples and found a difference in their parenting ability. Any claim otherwise is a distortion of the research, not a “gold standard.”

See Other Causes Of The Catholic League's Bill Donohue

Comments

[Elliot Stamler]

11:04 PM on 05/26/2012

We New Yorkers have had to put up with Donahue just as we have to put up with seeing the occasional rat in the subway. So for all you non-New Yorkers,here's the scoop: Donahue's Catholic League is entirely unconnected to the Catholic Church; it's basically 1-man organization affording Donahue the ability to make a decent living conning Catholics into believing it combats anti-Catholic bigotry. But 95% of it's work, Donahue's, is to advance his ultra-conservative, Republican political/social/cultural views and to smear as anti-Catholic anyone, including other Catholics (viz John Kerry, Joe Biden, Mario Cuomo, etc.,etc.) who disagrees with the Church views on public policy issues that affect everyone in society by operation of law. Donahue is in league with Pat Robertson and other fundamentalist Protestants - in no way is he or his bogus organization a legitimate voice against bigotry..indeed he PROMOTES bigotry, One last point..he cites his Ph.D. as supposedly validating his screeds of hatred and intolerance. Let me remind you all: DR. JOSEF GOEBBELS HAD A PH.D. FROM HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY. Of the top 22 Nazis at the First Nuremberg trial, several had doctorates, Dr. Kaltenbrunner (hanged). Dr. Frick (hanged), Dr. Seyss-Inquart (hanged), etc. etc. So much for having a doctorate as proof of decency, judgment, humanity.

[veroden208]

07:12 AM on 05/23/2012

You'll notice this blowhards use of the word, "I" He use it throughout his diatribe. These thoughts are his and his alone. This CATHOLIC LEAUGE is a leauge of one. Neither he or his opinions are sanctioned by any Church Authority. William Donohoe Enterprises would be a more apt name for him and his Leauge. I wish the networks would stop giving him so much face time. He is befuddling good people trying to understand things!!!

[nana4g]

12:34 AM on 05/23/2012

The "gold standard" has been severely tarnished and not because of gay marriage.

The Catholic Church is also tarnished, in shameful ways.

A sociologist should know that children can be raised by grandparents, one grandparent, or any kind of combination of any kind of set up and it is the love, guidance, structure, and constancy that makes for a good experience for a child, not the anatomy of the parents. Those qualities are what is "the gold standard".

[gibranII]

04:00 PM on 05/22/2012

The Catholic League should practice more of Jesus's compassion rather than exclusion... young Catholics are looking to find traditional social justice ,,, not hate and separation... the Church is failing to embrace a changing society and hides their own issues in deflection.. If the Church would focus on Compassion- Jesus's trademark. It would fill the pews.. this war against progressives is what should have been erased in Vatican II... I feel the Church has to much potential to do good..however stepping away from Universal Health and Gay bashing is heading it off another cliff.

[CMR64]

03:52 PM on 05/22/2012

who cares what he thinks...OBAMA 2012

[Quinn M]

03:28 PM on 05/22/2012

Bill Donohue is a bigot who uses his religion to cloak his hatred in legitimacy.

If religions want to be respected rather than ridiculed, they should practice the Golden Rule they preach to others.

[neastsider]

11:44 AM on 05/22/2012

wonder how many children this clown raped

[Manhattanite]

11:37 AM on 05/22/2012

Ding, dong.

[dwedge]

10:32 AM on 05/22/2012

It is certainly ironic that a divorced man becomes a modern day spokesman for the Catholic Church. More of the "do as I say not as I do" philosophy.

[NWBrunette]

10:36 PM on 05/21/2012

Hey homophobies, lock the doors! Grab the wife and kids! Head for the hills! Marriage equality is coming to get YOU!

[mcmutter]

10:06 PM on 05/21/2012

the funny part ....

that clown is sure he's going to heaven .....

imagine the surprised look on his face .....

[ThinkCreeps]

10:42 AM on 05/21/2012

Humpty Dumpty lives! It's a miracle.

[theiFyoU]

03:14 PM on 05/20/2012

If only Bill wasn't so male gay obsessed, he would realize half of gays are two women. Which is sort of hot.

[veroden208]

07:14 AM on 05/23/2012

That's his LATENT homosexuality showing!!!

[theiFyoU]

12:40 PM on 05/23/2012

 As Freud said, excuse me sir, your slip is showing............

[Joe Krumbach]

08:38 PM on 05/19/2012

So Jesus, the philosopher, never married, hung out with a bunch of his male friends, had a prostitute as one of his best friends, and talked about teaching each other with love.

Sounds alot different than what this guy is talking about.

[mcmutter]

05:24 PM on 05/19/2012

the most boring person in the world ?

apparently so ....