Incoming: Pro-gay rights hate speech

Apparently the North Carolina marriage amendment that passed yesterday had something to do with beating up gays. At least that's the impression you get if you watched CNN last night, which featured Anderson Cooper playing a video of a fairly out-of-control North Carolina pastor telling his congregation to crush the limp wrists of their effeminate sons (or something like that), as if this were somehow representative of the majority of North Carolinians voting in favor of traditional marriage.

This seemed to be Cooper's only contribution to the coverage of the amendment.

On the other end of things, there seems to be some question about what is representative of the other side on this issue. It is not only not unusual but common to find advocates of same-sex marriage engaging in ugly rhetoric against their opponents: charges of bigotry, malicious impartation of hateful motives, as well as simple adolescent name-calling.

One thing I will say for the Peanut Gallery here at Vital Remnants: at least they know they have to make an argument for their position, and, for the most part, they do.

But here's the first comment on the Family Foundation's post of their press release from today, by Mike Hunt, and this is too often the kind of response you'll hear from the people who claim they are against hate:

You people suck. You're intolerant, bigoted, small-minded, arrogant, pompous, and so utterly dumb that it's quite surprising that you can even form complete sentences. I kindly direct you to the little sidebar, which states, "Let us know your thoughts on this post but remember to PLACE nicely folks!" It's PLAY, you absolute dip sticks. You don't even have the wherewithal to know a cliche? And after nicely, there ought to be a comma. Figures you have no sense of grammar because most of you are utterly uneducated redneck hicks. Here's a hint: pull your heads out of your medieval butt holes, come up for air, and breathe in the 21st century. Uh-duh. We cavemen who beat bible and pray to G-d to punish sinners. You people are so hypocritical it's pathetic. But you have to live with yourselves. Luckily, my conscience is clear. Remember to die nicely, folks!

If people who were opposed to same-sex marriage used rhetoric like this, they would be roundly castigated for it by the media. But since it is being leveled in the cause of gay rights, it's perfectly acceptable. The irony was that one of the points of the press release was to point out the hateful rhetoric of the same-sex marriage lobby.

Go Mike.