In a well-publicized speech a couple days ago delivered at Catholic University, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said this: “I promise you even before this speech is over I’ll be attacked as a hater or a bigot or someone who is anti-gay,” Rubio said. “This intolerance in the name of tolerance is hypocrisy. Support for the definition of marriage as one man and one woman is not anti-gay, it is pro-traditional marriage.” Rubio, like so many others who try to frame the argument in favor of allowing same-sex marriage as an attack on traditional marriage, is deliberately misstating the issue. He and those who share that view would deny marriage to homosexual couples. Theirs is not merely a traditional view of marriage; it is both a restrictive view of marriage and a proprietary view of marriage. In effect, this argument says that heterosexual couples cannot share the joys and benefits of marriage with homosexual couples because this diminishes the former’s exclusive property rights in traditional marriage. There is in fact no attack on traditional marriage. In those states that recognize same-sex marriage, heterosexual couples are still free to marry. Homosexuals are not claiming that ONLY they should be allowed to marry, in stark contrast to supporters of traditional marriage such as Rubio.

Opposing someone else’s right to enjoy a privilege that you enjoy without a rational basis at law is the very definition of bigotry, Senator. The intolerance is all yours.