From BA to Broadway

We were pleased to see Broken Arrow's own Kristin Chenoweth featured in the New York Times yesterday. It seems that Ms. Chenoweth is a very busy young woman in the Big Apple, moving successfully through a host of plays and glitzy events in NYC's entertainment world.

None of this is surprising, of course—the lady's got talent to burn.

But we were pleasantly surprised to read some of her other comments, views which clash with Oklahoma's conventional wisdom. Like us, Ms. Chenoweth is tired of sitting on her hands when the Religious Busybodies attack. And they did attack recently, right after she spoke out in favor of gay rights. According to the Times, this position got her disinvited to a Women of Faith conference last year. (Heavens! A Broken Arrow girl who has lost her way in New York City!)

But Ms. Chenoweth didn't stop there. She had the nerve earlier this year to pose in what the Times calls "a parade of tiny bikinis" for FHM magazine. (Holy Cow! Who knew she had a body?) And if that's wasn't enough, she told the Times yesterday that she still disagrees with the anti-gay position expressed by many on the religious right.

"I don't understand what the big deal is with gay marriage," Chenoweth told the Times. "Get over it, people."

Ms. Chenoweth, we're with you. It's safe and easy for the Blue Noses of the Right to be homophobic here in Middle America. But it's brave and honest to stand up for living, breathing human beings—and U.S. citizens—who deserve fair and equal treatment in Tulsa and everywhere else.

Thanks, Kristen, for speaking your mind.