On Thursday night’s The Daily Show, Jon Stewart took the Supreme Court to task for the Justices’ ambivalence about the discriminatory intent behind the passage of the Defense of Marriage Act, highlighting anti-gay testimony from the House floor in 1996. He also called out Justice Scalia’s claim that there is “considerable disagreement among sociologists,” pointing out that there is actually consensus among medical professionals, “whereas on the opposing side, there’s some fucking guy who put out a thoroughly discredited study, or as that’s known on the right, ‘conclusive proof.’”

Stewart had little patience for Justice Alito’s caution that same-sex marriage is “newer than cell phones or the Internet”:

STEWART: We want you to step in and render a decision based on whether it’s right, and fair, and just under the Constitution — having nothing to do with its “newness” and what you think might happen, which, by the way, what do you think might happen? That they’ll discover that letting two ladies get married is going to rip open a hole in the ozone layer? I got news for you, gay marriage will definitely cause less national harm than cell phones or the Internet.

Here’s one thing I’m pretty sure you don’t have to do: you don’t have to beta-test rights. “Black people have only been here 50 years, I mean, let’s see how the Netherlands does with them before we lift the barriers.”

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The Daily Show and The Colbert Report returned from hiatus this week, and both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have noted that many significant voices are speaking out for same-sex marriage.

On Wednesday night, Stewart highlighted the many Democratic Senators who have come out for same-sex marriage over the past week, calling it “a historic shift in public opinion and the most boring gay pride parade float ever.” Stewart then juxtaposed this with Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) comments that he’s not a bigot:

STEWART: Believing that the definition of marriage should be left to the states doesn’t make you a bigot, but believing that those states should define that to be “traditional marriage”… that does actually make you a bigot.

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Meanwhile, Colbert was “shaken to the core” by Bill O’Reilly’s admission that he supports same-sex marriage. He highlighted Papa Bear O’Reilly’s past statements comparing same-sex to “plural marriage,” and marriage to turtles, ducks, and goats, demonstrating how a more enlightened understanding of marriage equality erases such silly fears.

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On Tuesday night’s The Daily Show, Jon Stewart dedicated a segment to a few advances in cultural acceptance for gays and lesbians, notably the potential that the Boy Scouts will soon change their anti-gay policy and Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo’s plan to use the Super Bowl spotlight to advocate for marriage equality. Stewart suggests the gay rights movement is beginning to “enter ares of national life previously thought closed off” and calls out opponents of equality like Frank S. Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, for claiming to be “respectful” in their condemnation.

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Among the many conservative responses to President Obama’s second inaugural address was commentator Pat Buchanan, who appeared on Fox News to decry the President’s inclusion of various social issues. He described the speech as “not uplifting,” “not really poetry,” “pedestrian,” and “deeply partisan” but specifically attacked the reference to the Stonewall Riots:

BUCHANAN: This is a cross between a State of the Union speech with an agenda and a partisan rally given to the DNC. And so, I think, the president lost a real opportunity. Look, they usually talk about what? When I was a kid, Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill. What was he talking about? Stonewall. That’s a barroom brawl in Greenwich Village in 1969, when cops were hassling gays in their bar, and the gays fought back and threw them all out. Does that belong in a presidential inaugural?

Jon Stewart took Buchanan to task on Tuesday night’s The Daily Show, retorting, “For the losing side of history, I’m Pat Buchanan.” Watch it:

Diminishing Stonewall to a “barroom brawl” is the equivalent of referring to Selma as a “street fight” or Seneca Falls as a “spa retreat.” It fails to recognize the historic turning point that Stonewall symbolized, including the launch of forthright activism through groups like the Gay Liberation Front and the first pride march. Given Buchanan’s penchant for attacking any kind of social justice, perhaps he resented the mere suggestion that gays and lesbians have had any kind of struggle for equality whatsoever.