The Golden Girls Take on Gay Marriage

by Michael Jones · 2010-01-07 08:03:00 UTC
Topics:

Golden GirlsCould there be a more gay-friendly show with an entirely straight cast than The Golden Girls? A favorite of the LGBT crowd, not to mention those with weekend hangovers that love the ten-hour marathons on the Hallmark channel, The Golden Girls is proving relevant once again, if not for a 60-second lesson on the issue of marriage equality.

It's pretty funny thinking that a show from the 1980s could have been so far ahead of its time that it took on the issue of gay marriage, almost two decades before it became a reality (and at that, only in a few states). But Blanche, Sofia, Dorothy and Rose hit the gay rights issues pretty hard. Which might be why the show created a generation of homosexuals, at least according to some witty folks.

Here's the Girls' take on marriage equality. Blanche (Rue McClanahan) has a gay brother who wants to get married, and she can't understand why. She can accept him being gay, but why does he have to (in the immortal words of Beyonce) "put a ring on it."

Enter Sofia (Estelle Getty), the television grandmother to end all television grandmothers. She asks Blanche why straight folks get married, and she answers that it's because they love each other, and want to make a lifetime commitment to each other.

"That's what [gay couples] want too. Everyone wants someone to grow old with, and shouldn't everyone have that chance?" Sofia asks.

Ah, retro heartwarming. Check out the clip below.

Photo: aintiawomanonline

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Overturning the Worst LGBT Adoption Law in the Country
NEXT STORY:
Bullied high schooler convinces MPAA to change ‘Bully’ rating to “PG-13”

COMMENTS (7)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.