In the overtime segment of Friday's Real Time program that aired on the Internet, Bill Maher and his guests talked about the challenges faced by the LGBT community, as well as by women, atheists and the non-religious.
Rob Reiner talked about the play "8," which is based on the court transcript of the federal trial on Proposition 8, in which California voters decided to reverse marriage equality. Proponents of the ban have appealed the ruling by the federal district court that the proposition was unconstitutional.
Maher and his guests felt that gay rights represent an issue that has changed dramatically in America and that the views of religious right's presidential pick, Rick Santorum, are not aligned with those of most Americans. Reiner contends that all national polls indicate that Americans are over 50 percent in favor of marriage equality.
"This is the last big piece of the civil rights puzzle," Reiner said, "which started in the 60s with blacks getting the right to vote, and have all their civil rights. The gay community is the one group in America that is not considered equal under the law."
"Well, actually, atheists are in that …" Maher interjected.
"We're not equal?" asked Reiner.
"Well, we certainly don't get any representation," Maher answered. "For a group that is about 17 percent now, I mean always growing, the people who say 'none' when you write religious affiliation, none, 17 percent bigger than any other minority, no representation in Congress. Nobody dares … There are tens of millions."
"You're right about that, that we don't have that representation — I include myself in that same 17 percent," Reiner admitted. "But we can have representation and gays can have representation as well … But under the law, atheists have the same legal rights as any other person."
"But they're the last group that everyone can just shit on publicly, and everybody applauds it," Maher noted.
Florida's Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schult (D) disagreed that everybody applauds disparaging remarks about non-believers, but agreed with Reiner that gay rights are the last civil rights issue in America. She noted that her children did not understand why the Republican candidates are so against gay people. Reiner added that the younger generation also does not understand why older generations thought it was a big deal to elect a black man as president. The younger people do not have an issue with gays or skin color, Reiner noted.
David Frum, blogger with The Daily Beast, and Bill Maher questioned President Obama's sincerity about gay rights.
Maher joked that in the second term, when he has nothing to lose, "You're going to see the real Obama come out, including his admission that he's an atheist, too."
As far as the percentage of women in government is concerned, Maher pointed out that the United States ranks 90th in the world.
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