In a thread of tweets, he said, “I now believe that you can’t really live in a secular society without supporting a legal right to marry for same-sex couples.”

I now believe that you can’t really live in a secular society without supporting a legal right to marry for same-sex couples. I do. But I still cringe as I remember how I made my own contribution to homophobic discourse back in my 20s, over a decade ago. I can only apologize.
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— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) March 23, 2019

In the following tweet, he expressed his deep and close ties with Owen Jones and Glenn Greenwald, whom he acknowledged them as a gay and an atheist respectively. He told that he realized sense and maturity at his 40^th birthday, since he used to make “stupid remarks” in his early 20s.

This sounds cliched but it’s true: some of my closest friends/allies in the media are gay & atheist, people like @OwenJones84 & @ggreenwald. They have stood shoulder to shoulder with under-fire Muslims in our darkest hours. And I regret not having had their backs in my youth
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— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) March 23, 2019

Responding to Hasan’s thread, Owen Jones called him “Absolute Superstar Mehdi”.

You’re an absolute superstar Mehdi, an inspiration to aspiring progressive journalists, and I’m beyond proud to have you as an ally and a friend!

— Owen Jones? (@OwenJones84) March 24, 2019

Hasan is the presenter of the Al-Jazeera English shows—The Café, Head to Head and UpFront, and the co-author of a biography of Ed Miliband and the political editor of the UK version of The Huffington Post.