Dallas Morning News comes out of the marriage closet

I had missed this, and a Dallas Facebook friend or two hadn't told me about it, but the Dallas Morning News, last Sunday, ran a house editorial explicitly supporting gay marriage.

Wow. Just wow.

That said, Snooze op-ed columnist Bil McKenzie wrote an in-house column also supporting gay marriage back in 2010. Of course, that's different than a house editorial. The Morning News is not a wingnut paper. But, I'd still call them officially "conservative" as far as op-ed tilt.

Here's the heart of the editorial:

We respect that some religious traditions see same-sex unions as an affront to their canons, scriptures and traditions. The First Amendment protects such places of worship from being compelled to conduct same-sex marriages. Additionally, the justices should take care to carve out strong and significant protections so that the institutions’ religious liberties, for instance their tax-exempt status, are not circumscribed.

In 2004, this newspaper opposed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. We have backed efforts to outlaw discrimination against employees based on sexual orientation. Now, we believe that the Supreme Court should conclude that equality under the law includes the right of gay couples to wed.

What’s at stake before the Supreme Court is how a secular society should respond to the growing demand for same-sex marriage. That is where Olson’s arguments seem so persuasive. How can a secular government grant marriage rights to some but not others?

Go read it all.

And pass it on to your red-state friends.