Gay Rights Movement Seeks to Crush its Enemies

Gay marriage activists saw a substantial turnout of protesters for today's demonstrations against California's Proposition 8.

According to the Los Angeles Times, approximately 10,000 to 12,000 demonstrators marched in protest in downtown L.A.

"Tens of thousands" marched in San Francisco, according to this San Francisco Chronicle report.

In San Diego, roughly 20,000 showed up for that city's events, which moved TBogg to write, "This is not going to go away."

Well, I couldn't agree more: The gay marriage ayatollahs never had any intention of accepting the will of the voters. The motivation driving the movement is apparently based in an extreme grievance at perceived injustice, which is resulting in a campaign of rage and recrimination, seeking not just marriage equality, but to brutalize those who stand in the way as well.

As Rod Dreher writes, with reference to the legal controversies surrounding Proposition 8:

Eugene Volokh, the UCLA law prof who supports gay marriage, once wrote that one of the key goals of the gay rights movement is to punish and marginalize people who in private life hold views they see as anti-gay.

This point seems unimpeachible, considering that gay activists have published the names of contributors to Proposition 8 at the website "Anti-Gay Blacklist," with the goal of boycotting and blacklisting regular citizens who exercized their democratic rights in the political process.

Pam Spaulding, who's been leading the leftosphere's backlash to Proposition 8, said this in response to the Mormon Church's political support of the initiative:

The factions of hate are now ready to take their well-oiled machine and work it on the rest of the country.

There's much more of this tone all over the blog, which is currently dedicated to the national campaign to overturn the will of a California majority.

The left's authoritarianism is evident in Jane Hamsher's post on the Mormon Church, which has a "they-had-it-coming" tone to it that confirms Dreher's thesis about crushing enemies:

It was awful enough that the Mormons (and Catholics) saw fit to fund an all-out blitz to amend the California constitution to outlaw gay marriage - but now, after breaking the hearts of millions of gay couples in California and across the country, they have the f**king nerve to act outraged when they face protests ....

Can someone show me where in the Constitution or Bill Of Rights it says that "people of faith" are somehow exempt from facing protests? That their "democratic right to express their views in the public square" trumps everyone else's?

The Mormons want to use the First Amendment as a one-way shield to protect their own right to free speech at the expense of everyone else's, while still reserving the right to cross the boundary between church and state whenever they see fit.

In a political battle like this, both sides will be outraged by the tactics of the other. But there's something about the No on 8 campaign that's downright anti-democratic. As Rick Moran says about the left's intimidation campaign against Yes on 8 backers:

Rather than trying to change [public] opinion, they are making these people enemies for life. And carrying out pogroms like this against people who oppose gay marriage based on their religious beliefs borders on bigotry.

There are other means of protest to make your displeasure known than targeting individuals. All the gay marriage advocates are doing is sealing their fate the next time such a measure goes before the [voters].