http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1006/24/cnr.01.html
Aired June 24, 2010 – 09:00 ET
KAREEN WYNTER CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rich Vaughn and Tommy Woelfel have been together for nearly nine years and married for two. Twenty-two months ago, their family doubled in size with their little twins, Abe and Austin. Sons born via surrogate. The couple has noticed something new in entertainment that they like.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to dance for my baby.
TOMMY WOELFEL, GAY PARENT: I think everybody likes to see a story on television that they can relate to.
WYNTER: Vaughn and Woelfel hope (ph) TV shows like “Modern Family,” “Glee”, and the new film “The Kids are All Right” represent a growing trend in Hollywood story lines, gay parents.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your mom and I sense that there’s some other stuff going on in your life which we just want to be let in. Are you having a relationship with someone?
JULIANNE MOORE, ACTRESS: I think the entertainment world reflects popular culture. I think that this is what happening in the world. So, what you’re seeing in television and film is what’s going on in our society at-large. It’s a great thing.
WYNTER: Not everyone thinks it’s a good thing including Dan Gainor from the Culture and Media Institute which says its mission in part is to preserve and help restore America’s culture, character, traditional values, and morals against the assault of the liberal media elite.
DAN GAINOR, CULTURE AND MEDIA INSTITUTE: It’s bad for society to promote homosexuals — particularly, homosexual lifestyle and gay marriage, and that’s what this is doing.
WYNTER: For Gainor, a traditional values require one male and one female parent.
GAINOR: Hollywood has done a great deal of work causing acceptance in American culture for homosexuality.
WYNTER: It’s for that very same reason that GLAD, a gay advocacy group has lauded such programming and telling CNN, quote, “stories like that of “Modern Family’s” Mitchell and Cameron are shedding new light on the hundreds of thousands of children being raised by loving and committed gay parents and the unfair natures of bans on adoption by gay and lesbian couples that currently exist in Florida, Utah, Mississippi.
GAINOR: Again, what they are trying to do is normalize something that a lot of people certainly in those states don’t want to normalize.
WYNTER: There in lies the debate for many. Is gay parenting normal?
Do you think you’re normal?
RICH VAUGHN, GAY DAD: As far as parenting, I think we’re completely normal. We get frustrated. We’re tired. We have great moments. Lots of great moments. And everything about our lives is revolving around the kids. And that’s completely normal.
WYNTER: Kareen Wynter, CNN, Hollywood.
PHILLIPS: And another reminder for you, our special doc airs tonight. Soledad O’Brien follows a same-sex couple in their struggle against the legal and personal obstacles to become parents. Watch “Gary and Tony Have a Baby” tonight, 8:00 p.m. eastern time.
Also, coming up next hour —
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: Straight ahead in CNN NEWSROOM. We’re gay in America, and we want you to hear our stories.