Too quick to label

Columnist John Corvino, who calls himself The Gay Moralist and teaches ethics at Wayne State University, says that 2009 could be a difficult year for gays. He cites these reasons:

We're more polarized. We tend not to associate with those who disagree with us and thus our discussions sound like echo chambers.

The goal of gays has shifted. We no longer want to just be left alone to conduct our relationships in private (sodomy laws are thankfully gone). We want marriage and that is an institution that involves public support.

We've changed how we treat our opponents. We're too quick to label our opponents as hate-filled bigots. But as things stand now, bigots make up more than half the voters in California and more than half the people in the country. They may be bigots, but labeling half the country that way doesn't help. A century ago we would have labeled half the country segregationists. Just remember Abraham Lincoln abhorred slavery but supported segregation.