In 2009 Frank Rich and I talked about why there wasn't a gay opinion columnist at the New York Times. One of the names we tossed around: Frank Bruni, who joined the opinion page in 2011. The struggle LGBT equality is the civil rights movement of our time and today Bruni demonstrated the critical importance of having a gay opinion columnist at the nation's paper of record:

Every year around this time, many conservatives rail against the “war on Christmas,” using a few dismantled nativities to suggest that America muffles worship.

Hardly. We have God on our dollars, God in our pledge of allegiance, God in our Congress. Last year, the House took the time to vote, 396 to 9, in favor of a resolution affirming “In God We Trust” as our national motto. How utterly needless, unless I missed some insurrectionist initiative to have that motto changed to “Buck Up, Beelzebub” or “Surrender Dorothy.”

Readers were treated to a laugh this morning that no straight opinion columnist could've provided them with. And this recent Bruni column calling Bill Clinton out on DOMA—passed on Clinton's watch, signed by Clinton the middle of the night, and campaigned on by Clinton during his reelection effort in 1996—was hugely important too.