Why am I unconvinced by Doug Roper's wide-eyed, hurt tone on behalf of all the innocent 'phobes who are suffering so under the heels of the jackbooted thugs in the gay equality movement? 

Most ironic is his closing question: "Can you imagine the firestorm of outrage that would erupt if sincere individuals in the gay community were targeted and assailed in an analogous manner?"

Uh, no, Doug. I don't have to imagine. I remember it happening all the time. I remember being attacked incessantly for being a faggot, and I don't remember any "firestorm of outrage." I remember authority figures either 1. looking uncomfortable and doing nothing, or 2. trying to make out that it was my own fault, somehow. This kind of bullshit is visited upon small-town gays all over the world, Doug. And it's because of people like you who think we don't deserve equality.

Anti-marriage jerks have called us perverts, child-molesters, worse than murderers, and all kinds of hateful things. Yet, somehow when the gays get angry and start waving few signs around or (however regrettably) spraypainting a word on a wall, that's over the line.

No, I'm not convinced by this rhetoric that tries to cast the well-oiled hate machine that opposes our civil rights as victims.