Asked by Steve Croft if the board of the Boy Scouts of America ‘should end their national band on gays in Scouting’ and if Scouting should be open to gays, President Obama offered an unequivocal and unqualified “Yes.” He then went on to describe his view that gays and lesbians should have opportunities in all areas and institutions in America, equal access “the same way everybody else does, in every institution and walk of life…. Nobody should be barred from that.”

A friend writes that this may be the largest audience for a presidential pro-equality message ever. The President’s Super Bowl interview is, in fact, often his largest televised audience, whether or not the American people have quite yet focused on the moving figures on the television screen. The TVs are on nonetheless, and this pro-equality statement was blasted into every home where folks were gathered ’round.