Can't We All Just Get Along?

Mark Shea:

Gay Brownshirts on the March!

After a San Jose family hung a Yes on 8 banner on their house, someone parked an SUV out front, then painted an arrow on the back window and the words: "Bigots Live Here."

Of course, this being California media, you have to present an, 'ow you say? "fair and balanced" story when gay thugs use brownshirt tactics such as harrassment, intimidation, vandalism and property destruction. But how do you do that when supporters of Prop 8 aren't engaging in similar thuggery?

First, you present a false equivalence between the thuggish acts of the gay brownshirts (actual vandalism and property destruction) and the *feelings* of gay people when somebody disagrees with them:

For many gay and lesbian people, the rhetoric of television ads and even the everyday things people say during a political campaign like Proposition 8 can carry a heavy emotional toll as normally buried feelings of prejudice are revealed, a group of researchers in San Francisco said Tuesday while releasing the results of two national surveys. Many gay and lesbian people are feeling stress, depression and alienation as the campaign intensifies.

Erik Martinez, a 26-year-old openly gay man, said he felt like he'd been punched in the stomach when a life-long friend told him in front of a group at a friend's wedding: "You don't have the right to get married."

"I felt," Martinez said, "every single word."

You see? Disagreeing with proponents of gay marriage is just as bad as harrassment, intimidation, vandalism and property damage. When people who oppose gay marriage express their views, it *feels* just as if they were vandalizing property and committing theft.

Then, instead of titling your piece, "Proponents of gay marriage harrass, intimidate, vandalize property and steal yard signs in bid to crush free speech" title the article "Same-sex marriage debate growing ugly in San Jose and beyond".

There! Now *everybody* is equally guilty and the solution is obvious: we all need to get along and just leave poor harmless gay people alone to alter the definition of the fundamental building block of our culture!

Next stop: Human Right Commissions for the crime of saying things about marriage that make gay people feel bad.