I doubt if there are many homophobes in either party.

Maybe not many, but vocal. I count John Derbyshire as a friend, but it’s none the less clear that his reaction of homosexuals is driven by a deep and unreasoned “ooh, those queer guys are icky” distaste. Stan Kurtz has much the same reaction going on.

It looks very famiiar to me: it looks an awful lot like the reactions my Georgia grandfather, and my father, had to black people.

I loved and admired both of them, but on this topic they were just nuts. The Kobe Bryant case (to cross threads) would have had my grandfather railing about how black men want to have sex with white women, except he wouldn’t have said “black men” or “have sex with”.

I’m not claiming, by any means, that anyone who doesn’t like gay marriage or equal rights efforts is phobic — just that some of these people seem to be motivated by the same queasy discomfort I feel around spiders.