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Opinions Shift on Gay Rights; Parents Protest Victoria's Secret; FGCU Coach, Wife the "It" Couple.
Aired March 29, 2013 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: A decade ago, 27 percent of Americans supported same-sex marriage. Now, more than 50 percent say it should be legal. Why the change? Coming up, on how the issue has made politicians on both sides lean center.
Some parents outraged over Victoria's Bright New Things collection. The campaign features phrases like, call me and let's make out. Some parents say the line geared towards tweens is over sexualizing girls and they are protesting. Tweet me. Tell us what you think. Tweet me. This is CNN NEWSROOM. It is all happening now. Tell us what you think. Weigh in.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: We don't expect the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage until June. The fact that they are considering this issue, it is evidence of how far and how fast the gay rights issues have advanced.
Conservative talk-show host, Rush Limbaugh, says the right has already lost the fight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSH LIMBAUGH, CONSERVATIVE TALK-SHOW HOST: This issue is lost. I don't care what the Supreme Court does, this is now inevitable. Once we started talking about gay marriage, traditional marriage, opposite- sex marriage, hetero-marriage, we lost. It was over. It was just a matter of time. This is the point a friend of mine sent me a note about. He said, once you decide to modify the word "marriage," then the other side has won.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: We want to bring our CNN contributor, John Avlon, senior political news columnist for Daily Beast.
Good to see you in person.
JOHN AVLON, SENIOR POLITICAL NEWS COLUMNIST, DAILY BEAST & CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I know. A pleasure.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX: You and I were talking about this. I don't know when you graduated from college. Within my college days, it was a debate within the gay community. It was considered too radical for mainstream to accept that idea, that there would be a backlash if you pushed too fast, too soon. How did we get to this point?
AVLON: That's what's so fascinating. That's why I wrote this piece. This has run from the margin into the mainstream at warp speed. A decade ago, only 26 percent of Americans were OK with same-sex marriage. Today it's a clear majority. And if you take a look, generational, the majority of Republicans under 50. 60 percent of evangelicals under age 30. This is a sea change we are experiencing.
And the difference has been described. Early on, there was a lot of confrontational tactics, the street theater approach. That can alienate more people than it attracts. What has happened in recent years around this issue is that we had activists that are coming together. Not coincidentally, Ted Olson, founder of the federal society, solicitor general for the Bush administration, who argues the case in front of the Supreme Court earlier this week.
MALVEAUX: Talk about the importance of language. You don't hear the same kinds of words. You don't hear gay marriage. You hear things like same-sex marriage and marriage equality, which is very different in how you phrase things and how you think about a relationship.
AVLON: Absolutely. Language matters. This is a fascinating story in itself. The phrase "marriage equality" works well with liberal Democrats. We are in the midst of what is seen as a civil rights movement for the gay community. Conservatives, Libertarians like the phrase "freedom to marry." It stresses individual initiative, individual choice, and that Libertarian ideal. Words matter. They help depolarize the debate and build bridges. And that what you need to break the log jam on these cultural war issue.
MALVEAUX: Could this be a model for something else? Give me another example of something a culture war issue even if it is legalizing marijuana or whatever it might be to emulate that strategy?
AVLON: I think there is a deeper story here. There is a strategic insight you can apply across the cultural issues, whether it is legalizing marijuana or maybe even abortion, which is a difficult one for people, certainly immigration. We are seeing it now. You are seeing the fact that the activists are deeply polarized. The majority of Americans are not. When you political leaders start to have the perch to reach across the aisle, to define the common ground that exists to start building on it and start disenthralling themselves with this rhetoric, you can get these massive breakthroughs on public policy issues. All of the sudden, when people shift from positional bargaining and fighting to problem solving, and that's what we saw in this issue.
MALVEAUX: How relevant is it when you have people like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt saying, we are not going to get married until everybody has a right to get married? You have all these celebrities and popular people weighing in on this. Does it make a difference?
(CROSSTALK) AVLON: I think it does. Politics and pop culture intersect in a way that resonates beyond the halls of Congress. It can move peoples' opinion. I do think the high-profile -- the increased number of celebrities who are out and comfortable with who they are and sang it, changes people's mind and assumptions. The biggest issue driving this isn't just politics. The number of gays and lesbians has increased in society. The openness forces people to humanize this issue which then depolarizes it and allows us to move forward.
MALVEAUX: All right. John, good to see you.
AVLON: It's good to see you.
(LAUGHTER)
MALVEAUX: Come back more often.
AVLON: Any time. I'd love to.
MALVEAUX: Thanks again, John. Appreciate it.
These ads pushed some parents over the edge. They started to petition a protest of a lingerie line aimed at girls from Victoria's Secret. Coming up, we are going to hear from one parent who wants companies like Victoria's Secret to stop turning daughters into sex objects.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Sexy clothing marketed to girls, nothing new. Two years ago, you saw Abercrombie and Fitz raising eyebrows with the push-up bikini tops for girls. Some parents say Victoria's Secret has gone too far. They are upset over the new line called Bright Young Things, including underwear printed with phrases like "Call me, feeling lucky, and wild." There's also a YouTube video showing young models dancing on the beach, wearing bikinis.
I want to bring in Diane Cherry. She is a mother of four, including daughters. She says, enough is enough. She has starred in an online petition calling on Victoria's Secret to pull this campaign. She is joining us from Seattle.
Diane, good to see you. Glad you are on the program.
You have thousands of people who are weighing in signing this petition online. Tell us what the main objection is to this. Victoria's Secret, they say, this is for young women, not necessarily for young girls.
CHERRY, STARTED ONLINE PETITION: Sure. Well, the first marketing image that I saw was of a model that looks extremely young. Next to her image, it said, Bright Young Things. I don't feel our children are things. I feel like the image of that model was an intentionally ambiguous image of a very young girl. So that's what made me angry initially. The underwear themselves, the messages on them are not great images for our young girls. I started a petition, because I wanted other people to be able to have a voice, to say they agree, this is not the type of marketing Victoria's Secret should be using to reach a demographic that's really inappropriate for them.
MALVEAUX: I want to bring out the spokesperson for Victoria's Secret, saying the Bright Young Things slogan was used in part of the college break tradition in a collection, they say, is meant for college-age women. Since that controversy, they have pulled that line from some stores and off the web site.
You have gotten so many people weighing in on this. Some people say, well, look, you know, if you don't like it, you don't have to buy it. You don't have to wear it. You don't even have to pay attention to. How do you respond?
CHERRY: Well, that's true, if I don't like it, I don't personally have to buy it. My girls are six, five, and two. So I'm not concerned that my particular daughters are going to buy this particular underwear.
It is about something much bigger. It is about when girls repeatedly see images that tell them their only value is sex, and when they are objectified through marketing and that message is coming at them at every moment, they start to believe that. This just pressures them to feel like they have to be too sexy too soon. If there was an individual who was talking to our daughters this way, saying to them, over and over, you need to be sexy, you need to be beautiful to be accepted and loved, we would speak out and not allow that person into our homes or into our lives anymore. But we don't necessarily speak out when companies do this. That's what they are doing, is saying to our daughters over and over again that they are not good enough, that they need this particular product that only furthers the message that girls are objects.
MALVEAUX: Diane, you are bringing up a very good point. A lot of people are weighing in. Our viewers, we asked them to weigh in on this. One said, "We agree. This market should be off limits, money- making ploy at the expense of kids' childhoods." Another says, "How about not buying it if you don't like it"?
There are so many people that feel very passionately about this type of thing. Where do you begin where you start to value young girls aside from sexualizing them?
CHERRY: Right. That's a great question, where do you begin? I think that's a question I've asked myself a lot. So that's why I started this campaign, because there are a lot of people asking, why this? Why now? My answer to that question is, why not this? Why not now? We have to start somewhere in saying this isn't OK. This isn't the message we want for our young girls, and holding companies accountable to be creating products that empower young girls not that objectify them in this way.
MALVEAUX: Diana Cherry, thank you so much. I appreciate you opening the discussion and the debate.
Clearly, Victoria's Secret, paying very close attention to what you are saying in your petition and your call to action.
Thanks again, Diana. I appreciate it.
CHERRY: Thank you.
MALVEAUX: The stock market closed for Good Friday. S&P 500 closed yesterday at a record high. Is it time to invest? We're going to tell you how to make the most of your savings, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Stock markets are closed for Good Friday. The S&P set a record high. So is it actually a good time to invest? Well, Ali Velshi and Christine Romans explain in this week's "How to Speak Money."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Thanks.
OK. Look, this is the end of the quarter, the end of the first three months. Sort of how you should look at your investments, you should check it every quarter. But this is the best performing first quarter for the Dow since 1998, about 15 years or so.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It was a really good double digit return. You would love these returns if you had them for a year.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Here is a case for buying stocks. Ali, you illustrate the case for buying stocks.
VELSHI: All right.
Why should you buy stocks? Couple of reasons. One, fed stimulus, QE- 3. The fed prints money, throws it into the economy, the net result is that interest rates are so low there is nothing else to do with your money except buy a house for a low mortgage or put it in the stock market. Number two, there is no alternative. Connected to number one. What else are you going to do that is going to get you these kinds of returns? Prices are at a fair value. A price to earnings ratio, how much is the price of the stock versus what are the earnings. They are lower today than they were five years ago when we hit those records in October of 2007. Those are the reasons in favor of investing.
ROMANS: You know the last legs of an old bull market, this is a four- year-old bull market, tend to be the most lucrative, but you don't know when it is going end to, right? Here are the cases against buying stocks right now. You got this issue with Europe's recession. The U.S. is going up, the economy is going up, Europe is going down. As we saw with Cyprus, Europe is still a problem. U.S. consumers are strapped. We don't know how much oxygen the consumer has if we don't jobs starting to come back and profit taking. This is the most important one. At some point, people are going to start to say, I got 10 percent, I got 15 percent over the last year, I'm going to start to take money off the table.
VELSHI: And invest it in something else.
ROMANS: That's when you start to see the market turn.
VELSHI: I think we're both in agreement that, generally speaking, most people should be invested in a balanced way of all the time. But just because we're setting records doesn't mean you shouldn't be in the market right now, and just because it is setting records doesn't mean you shouldn't be.
ROMANS: One last point, if it is money you're going to need in the next year, 18 months, you should not be buying stocks right now. It should be risk capital you're putting in the stock market you don't need to use.
Right?
VELSHI: That's right. The end of the quarter. Check your 401K, check your IRA, see how it is doing. Rebalance it, sell some of the winners.
And we'll be back with more.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you.
Here, Atlanta, home of CNN's world headquarters, it started as a transportation hub. Now almost 200 years on, a hub, a big one. Now it is for planes rather than trains. Atlanta's airport has been named again as the busiest passenger airport in the world. More than 95 million passengers pass through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport last year. Beijing's Capital International is the second biggest with more than 81 million. And Heathrow in London, third, with more than 70 million.
An actor best known for his work in Harry Potter, Richard Griffiths, he has died. He played Harry's uncle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD GRIFFITHS, ACTOR: In my opinion, pass over (INAUDIBLE). Why is that, Dudley?
DANIEL RADCLIFFE, ACTOR: Because there is no post on Sunday.
GRIFFITH: Right you are, Harry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Griffiths died yesterday after complications from heart surgery. He was 65.
Clive Davis helped shape the careers like Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys and Janis Joplin, but he is still looking for the next big star. We'll hear from him just ahead.
Plus, how this FGCU head coach and his model wife became the "it" couple in sports.
And the boys of Dunk City continuing to chase Cinderella March Madness, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Clive Davis says he's searching for his next big hit. He's the man behind Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys and Janice Joplin. He says he's always looking for fresh new talent.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLIVE DAVIS, SINGER: I take none of this ever for granted to this day, so that I keep my ear fresh. I'm afraid of going over the hill. So I make sure peers of mine do go over the hill. I make sure I listen to every new record as it hits the charts, so that it takes vigilance and you build in expertise that the artist is trusting you to give you the opportunity to work with them and their career.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: You can learn more about Davis' life and his legendary career in his new memoir called "Soundtracks of My Life."
And now, March Madness, down to 12 teams. One of the stars of today's sweet 16 round is an upstart school from Florida.
As Rachel Nichols reports, it is a true Cinderella story. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Florida Gulf Coast has all the ingredients of an NCAA darling, a small school taking down giants with flashy play and a catchy nickname. As the boys of Dunk City try to do it again tonight, their confidence hasn't waned.
ANDY ENFIELD, FGCU HEAD COACH: People ask me, do I think we can win? Yes, I think we can win. I'm a head coach. I'm not going to say, no, I don't think we can win. We're going to go in and win that game.
NICHOLS: You can't blame head coach, Andy Enfield, for thinking FGCU can carry off the upset. He's already accomplished on himself by marrying a former super model. Amanda Markham used to grace the pages of "Vogue" and the runways of Paris, but she's also a big basketball fan.
(on camera): You guys actually it sounds like have the NCAA tournament to thanks for your entire marriage, right?
AMANDA MARKHAM, WIFE OF ANDY ENFIELD: You could say that, yes. I was going up to Boston to see Oklahoma State play in the tournament, and instead of flying, my friend I was going with knew Andy and he -- we found out he was driving so we just bummed a ride and here we are.
NICHOLS: Did you make her pay for gas or anything like that?
ENFIELD: No, I was happy to pick that tab up.
(LAUGHTER)
NICHOLS: Andy, when you Google Amanda's name, the modeling pictures come up, you have a bunch of hormonal teenagers that you coach, how you to deal with that?
ENFIELD: She was so successful, flew all over the world, she's done such a wide variety of modeling shoots with blouses and jeans and outfits and --
MARKHAM: Clothes.
ENFIELD: A lot of clothes. But the only thing you see on the Internet are the swimsuit and lingerie.
NICHOLS (voice-over): The Enfield story has only added to the FGCU fairy tale as has the charm of their three young children who also can be found in the stands. Though they may be the only ones not caught up in the eagles run.
MARKHAM: My oldest daughter goes to Target and gets to buy a dinosaur from the dollar bin that was promised after we got back from the tournament.
ENFIELD: They hit me up after the first game and said, can we get another one if you win the second game. At that point, sure.
NICHOLS (on camera): Absolutely.
ENFIELD: You should ask for more than that.
NICHOLS: What do they get if you win game three?
ENFIELD: More. I already agreed to that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Good for them.
Watch March Madness action tonight on our sister network, TBS.
That's it for me. CNN NEWSROOM continues. Have a great weekend.
