Peter LaBarbera, in the middle of a wordy whine about the Illinois civil unions law:

These sad developments in the Land of Lincoln constitute further proof that homosexuality-based “rights” and religious freedom cannot co-exist. “Gay” activism – empowered by Illinois’ “sexual orientation” law and the new Civil Unions law — will drive out the free expression of religion and morality, which must include the right to oppose sexual behavior historically regarded as disordered and sinful.

They also define the word “oppose” incorrectly.  You see, Peter is free to oppose gay people all he wants.  If he opposes marriage equality, he is free to live by the confines of his religion and stay with his wife, refraining from marrying a leather daddy at one of the fetish conventions he photographs.  He simply doesn’t have to do it!  Nobody will make him.  Just like I “oppose” religious fundamentalist nutjobbery.  I’ll speak out and show people how in-your-face stupid religious fundamentalism is, how a perfunctory glance at reality is its simplest negation, etc.   But I won’t try to take away their rights to be idiots.

But.

To the religious fundamentalist, their “religious freedom” trumps everybody else’s constitutional rights, because they [hilariously] think they are superior [even though they contribute little to nothing to society].  So when Porno Pete uses the word “oppose,” he means that he should be able to act to take away other peoples’ freedoms and rights, that he should be able to use his pretend moral authority, derived only from his 4th grade interpretation of an old book, to hurt other people.

Not gonna fly in America, Peter.  Convert to Islam and move to Iran if that’s what you want.  The only difference between your religion and the fundamentalist Islam practiced in that country is that your side occasionally drops an obligatory reference to Jesus and y’all aren’t allowed to hang people in this country [anymore].

Because, see, we on the side of reason don’t want to take anything away from people like Porno Pete.  Oh sure, we know it hurts their fee fees any time they confront any piece of reality that, by its very existence, laughs at their beliefs.  Fossils, for instance.  They’re not protected against being made to look stupid, or like social pariahs, in the Constitution.  But we don’t want to take away their fundamental rights.  They do want to take ours away.

So we are at an impasse.  We will continue to fight for our rights to be treated as equal citizens, in an American way that seeks to deny our opponents nothing, and they will continue to fight to hurt us in an extremely un-American way, deceived as they are into believing that this is “their” country and theirs only.

Oh, and they will continue losing, and we’ll just keep on winning.