Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr
Remember Christine O’Donnell? That lady who kind of looks like Sarah Palin who almost was elected to the US Senate in 2010? Christine O’Donnell was in the Tea Party before it was cool. She was the original scary white lady, with sound bites that make Palin look like Sandra Day O’Conner (“We took the Bible and prayer out of public schools. Now we’re having weekly shootings. We had the 60s sexual revolution, and now people are dying of AIDS.” Remember that one?)
Well, in case you didn’t get enough Christine in 2010, she’s back promoting a new book, entitled Trouble Maker. She went on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” to promote the book, which, according to the author, is “a very inspirational story to people who are part of the Tea Party movement, so that they can continue in this movement to bring America back to the Second American Revolution.”
Things turned rather sour, however, when Morgan repeatedly grilled the almost-Senator about her views on gay rights, including marriage and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, issues she apparently discusses in her memoir. O’Donnell tried to evade the questions, repeating that “what relevance is that right now?” and “I’m not running for office,” but Morgan would not let up, continuing to push her to answer until she walked off the set, claiming that she was late for another engagement.
While the whole “leaving the interview in a huff” thing is great TV, the best part of this story is Morgan. The fact that a freshman news anchor with rather enormous shoes to fill (he took over from Larry King earlier this year) is willing to go to the mat on gay rights issues is further proof that the media is taking this topic very seriously. Of course, there are many issues facing our community that are arguably more pressing and less TV-friendly that don’t get any airtime at all. But this interview is the latest in an increasingly long line of examples of mainstream media treating LGBT problems with the respect they merit.
The video of the interview is below; click here for a list of O’Donnell gems (HuffPo).