We’re standing here in Philadelphia, the, uh, city of brotherly love, the birthplace of freedom, where the, uh, founding fathers authored the Declaration of Independence, and I don’t recall that glorious document saying anything about all straight men are created equal. I believe it says all men are created equal.  — Philadelphia

Rights for one means rights for all. It doesn’t matter whether the person is gay or straight, white or black, male or female. This the political ideal that I believe in, and if you disagree, please consider what about your own life could be used to strip you of your rights. Saying that someone isn’t worthy of free exercise of their God-given rights because of something in their life is a slippery slope to having our rights dictated to us.

One of the stumbling blocks for us is that we have an obligation to respect the rights of those who want to take our rights away to express that opinion.  Saying “You shouldn’t say that no-one should own a gun.” is, to me, as wrong as saying “You shouldn’t be able to own a gun.”.  Demanding that our rights be respected signs us up to respect the rights of those who disagree.  We can debate them, prove them wrong, and do our level best to thwart their efforts, but we must never fall into the trap of denying the rights of others in order to preserve our own.