The shame of it all

When Kerry points out that homosexuality is not a choice and implies that Mary Cheney doesn't see it as choice, Mary's mother calls it a cheap and tawdry trick. Basically this says that even despite familial affection Cheney feels shameful about the truth of her daughter. I saw this same idea being voiced by the MSNBC pundits last night and it took me a while to get what they were complaining about. What we see here is that the uninformed bigotry in this country is deep and pervasive.

As Josh Marshall put it:

"If one of Cheney's children was, God forbid, paraplegic and Kerry referred to him or her in the context of a question about people with disabilities, would there be a problem?"

For me it's all the more reason to fight on for genuine equality on sexual-orientation. Just like the knee-jerk racism that surrounded me in my youth growing up in Texas, this bigotry is going to die hard. We will need to pass clear-cut laws and have clear-cut consequences for overt discrimination. Yes, we will have to force people to put bigotry on the shelf. And we should recognize that it will remain with us until this generation passes.

Oh and by the way, where was Lynne's outrage when Alan Keyes called her daughter a "selfish hedonist"?

Update: And Atrios further illuminates.