Robert Wright, president of NBC from 1986 to 2007, has joined a list of Hollywood notables -- including Melissa Etheridge, David Geffen, Anne Hathaway, Jane Lynch, Eric McCormack, Mya, Martin Sheen, Lily Tomlin, and "Ellen & Portia DeGeneres" -- in signing a letter to President Obama urging his public support of federal recognition of "gay marriage."
We ask you now for your leadership on ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage -- an exclusion that harms millions of Americans each day. Whether to end discrimination in marriage is a question America has faced before, and faces again today. With so many Americans talking it through in heartfelt conversations, it is a question that calls for clarity from the President.
You can offer hope to millions of young gay and lesbian Americans who are facing discrimination. You can tell them that their future is bright, that they, too, will be able to grow up and marry the person that they love, that the pursuit of happiness truly belongs to all of us. You can put government on the side of those seeking to care for their loved ones, instead of those standing in their way. You can affirm that for all of us, gay or non-gay, love is love and commitment counts— and that we Americans should treat others as we all want to be treated.
The letter is also signed by Julian Bond and Helen Fabela Chavez (Mrs. Cesar Chavez), Unitarian Universalist ministers Peter Morales and William Sinkford, NFL players Brendan Ayanbadejo and Scott Fujita, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, Napster co-founder Sean Parker, Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus, playwright Tony Kushner, and musician Rufus Wainwright.
Brent Bozell dubbed Wright "The CEO of Silliness" in a 2006 column for authoring a Wall Street Journal op-ed claiming the Bush-era FCC was censoring all the creativity out of TV. He issued the same warning in the Journal in 2004.
