From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone. After a big win in the Supreme Court, one gay marriage advocate evaluates the messaging tactics used by his side.

In most of our ads, we have, you know, gay people. Our grandparents talk about how proud they are of their gay children or our co-worker or our neighbor

or someone else besides an actual LGBT person.

And in Washington, lawmakers grapple with secret interpretations of the laws that govern its not-so-secret surveillance programs.

It's like there were two Patriot Acts. My constituents can't read the one that actually matters. Plus, a woman dies and her family

finally opens that lock box she told them never to touch. They busted it open with a screwdriver

and inside it was a birth certificate in someone else's name. There's more coming up after this.

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From WNYC in New York, this is on the media. Bob Garfield is away this week. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

This week in Washington, the world's geekiest foot race as reporters or their interns sprinted to the cameras with two landmark high court

rulings. Now Shannon Breen just out from the U.S. Supreme Court, she's got her gym shoes on,

she's running toward our camera, she has the decision now in her hands. The court struck down a key

provision of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which blocked federal recognition of gay marriage,

and then let stand a California decision that struck down a gay marriage ban there.

The rulings came as American acceptance of gay marriage accelerates.

We have now hit a point here in the U.S. where more than half the population, 51 percent, say that they favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally.

That's Amy Mitchell, acting director of the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

That compares to 42 percent who say they oppose it. And if you look back to 2009, the breaks at that point in time were just 35% that favored it versus 54% that opposed.

Do you have any notion of what changed in 2009?

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