Videos from Zach Wahls and Rick Perry
were among the five most-watched political videos of 2011, YouTube
announced Tuesday.
Wahls is the University of Iowa student
who defended his two-mom family at an Iowa House hearing considering
a proposed measure that would repeal the state's gay marriage law by
defining marriage as a heterosexual union in the Iowa Constitution.
The video of Wahls telling lawmakers
that his family isn't any different drew 18.3 million views to become
the most-watched video in 2011.
“I'm not really so different from any
of your children. My family really isn't so different from yours.
After all, your family doesn't derive its sense of worth from being
told by the state, 'You're married, congratulations!'”
“No, the sense of family comes from
the commitment we make to each other. To work through the hard
times, so we can enjoy the good ones. It comes from the love that
binds us. That's what makes a family,” Wahls said. (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)
(Related: Ellen
DeGeneres calls gay marriage supporter Zach Wahls a “hero.”)
Rick Perry's recently released anti-gay
ad, titled Strong, drew 7 million views to become the third
most-watched political video.
“There's something wrong in this
country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can't
openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school,” Perry says in the
ad.
The ad has been lampooned by Stephen
Colbert and GOP presidential rival Fred
Karger. Parodies
of the ad have overtaken the Internet.