Thu, Jan 5, 2006 6:26pm EST
The porpoise-driven wife: O'Reilly links same-sex marriage to UK woman who "married" dolphin
Summary: Bill O'Reilly once again repeated his argument that same-sex marriage will lead to interspecies marriage.
On the January 4 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host <http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/people/billoreilly>Bill O'Reilly once again repeated his argument that legalizing same-sex marriage will lead to nuptials between humans and other species. In the "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day" segment, O'Reilly said that "[o]ne of the arguments against gay marriage, that we just spoke about, is that if it becomes law, all other alternative marital visions will be allowed." He then related the <http://mediamatters.org/rd?http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10694972/>story of a British woman, Sharon Tendler, who "married" a dolphin in Israel.
From the January 4 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: Time now for "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day." One of the arguments against gay marriage, that we just spoke about, is that if it becomes law, all other alternative marital visions will be allowed. We've already seen a Dutchman marry two ladies in the Netherlands. Looks like a happy guy. And now comes word that a British woman has married a dolphin in Israel. Forty-one-year-old Sharon Tendler has tied the knot with a 35-year-old mammal, so age is no problem there. But there might be other issues, which would be, of course, ridiculous to get into, and there is one more thing. The dolphin is a female, Cindy, so you got that going on. Again, I guess this is part of the honeymoon ritual, but far be it from me to know anything about that. Despite everything, we wish the couple the best and we hope to see them at SeaWorld or someplace.
According to an Associated Press <http://mediamatters.org/rd?http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10694972/>report, Tendler's "marriage" was not a legal one. She reportedly "still kept open the option of 'marrying human' at some stage," but, "she said for now she was strictly a 'one-dolphin woman,' " and that she "hope[s] he has a lot of baby dolphins with the other dolphins. The more dolphins the better."
O'Reilly has repeatedly warned that legalizing gay marriage will lead to interspecies nuptials. So far, his predictions include marriages between humans and goats (<http://mediamatters.org/items/200504150005>here and <http://mediamatters.org/items/200503310004>here) and between humans and <http://mediamatters.org/items/200509160009>ducks.
Cetacean note: porpoises and dolphins, while similar, do have <http://mediamatters.org/rd?http://nmml.afsc.noaa.gov/education/cetaceans/dalls1.htm>notable <http://mediamatters.org/rd?http://www.nhm.org/research/mammals/dolporp/dolporp.html>differences.