Etheridge's Wife Defends Warren

Melissa Etheridge's significant other goes to bat for right-wing pastor Rick Warren, calling him
"the man the media has made our latest 'HE HATES YOU!' target." In fact, he doesn't hate gays, Tammy Lynn Michaels writes on her Hollywood Farm Girl blog. Melissa, who recently met him, found that the pastor "is warm, caring, effusive, and LOVES gays."

Michaels dismisses his opposition to gay marriage, saying it's about semantics and tradition—not rights. Some opponents, she writes, simply "don't want the word 'marriage' brought into our gay ceremonies" and "for religious (archaic) reasons, they want to stay safe and respectful to WHAT THEY'VE BEEN TAUGHT." In the end, she argues, “if they afford us the EXACT SAME RIGHTS, then who cares what it's called?” (More Melissa Etheridge stories.)