This week the ACLU jumped into the marriage equality debate with a call for ABC’s Modern Family to tie their popular gay couple’s knot. The “Cam & Mitch Get Hitched” campaign debuted Thursday with an online petition declaring, “it’s time for America’s biggest, red-beard-iest prime-time couple to get hitched in front of millions of American viewers.”
Citing polls that show that show a clear majority of Americans now support marriage equality, American Civil Liberties Union communications strategist Alicia Gay (yup) makes a compelling argument for fictional characters playing a powerful role in shaping public opinion, from Ellen’s coming out to Will & Grace’s influence on Smokin’ Joe Biden’s thinking the gay marriage thing.
At ABC’s upfront this week, MF patriarch Ed O’Neill said his fictional son’s wedding wouldn’t be “a bad bet.” In fact, Jesse Ferguson (Mitchell) is a real-life groom-to-be with plans to marry longtime boyfriend Justin Mikita. Too late for a summer special with the show’s season finale already in the can, but a Supreme Court decision on California’s Prop. 8 in June means marriage equality will be headline news as writers sit down to pen Modern Family’s season 5 premiere.
Ms. Gay’s pitch got us thinking: which of our favorite gay couples could use a petition to get them to them to the altar, or the marriage clerk’s office, or a beach on Maui? Check out our suggestions on the following pages.