WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — In the weeks since the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that banning gay marriage is unconstitutional, activists on both sides of the issue have made their arguments — defending the decision as a vital step toward equal rights or condemning it as an erosion of a sacred sacrament.

But in front of hundreds of thousands of people on Broadway and a television audience of millions more, Harvey Fierstein Tony Award winning actor and playwright moved the debate from the editorial pages to the holiday breakfast table.

“We are not from another country, we’re not from another planet, we are your families, your brothers, your sisters, your aunts and uncles,” said the openly gay Fierstein, speaking from his southwestern Connecticut home this week. “If we can get our families to understand that what we’re talking about here is equal rights, then we’ve won. That is the conversation that needs to be had.”

So, the outspoken star of Broadway’s hit musical Hairspray sang his way down Broadway atop the Percy and the P-Birds float dressed as his onstage character Edna Turnblad dressed as Mrs. Claus. And, as he noted in a New York Times op-ed the previous day, if a man is Mrs. Claus that means Santa is half of a same-sex couple.

“The political statement was,” said Fierstein, “if somebody as lovely as Santa was gay, could he be treated with respect in America?”

The answer depends on who you ask.

“I hope Harvey gets run over by a reindeer,” snapped one Internet e-mailer.

But Human Rights Campaign Executive Director Elizabeth Birch said Fierstein’s flamboyant tone was right on target.

“Harvey Fierstein is a wonderful activist and has been for years,” she said. “The porridge is flying around breakfast tables, as people grapple with gay marriage. Harvey is bringing some warmth and color to that discussion.”

The problem, said Fierstein, is that too many people were talking about his parade costume and not his message.

The characterizations, he said, ignore the key issue, which is the effort by several Republican House and Senate members to amend the U.S constitution to ban same sex unions. It would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and would supersede state laws.

Matt Daniels, president of the Alliance for Marriage, defended the amendment, saying gays and lesbians can live as they choose but “don’t have a right to redefine marriage for our entire society.”

“Not since Jim Crow have they tried to pass laws discriminating against their own citizens,” responded Fierstein. “Where is the screaming?”

And he said simply allowing same-sex unions, which some gay rights advocates support, would not be enough because, unlike marriages, they would not be legal across state borders.

“We want equal rights, they’re offering us special rights,” he said. “We want to marry. We want to have the same kind of relationship that our parents have.”