What you are asking for
With the release of Ender's Game looming on the horizon, Orsen Scott Card is not doing the movie any favors. Like so many anti-gay marriage proponents, he is advocating for tolerance of his opinions after fighting to deny gay couples legal marriage. For those that don't see the hypocrisy in this, let me explain.
Each person demonstrates how they think others should be treated by what they say and do. Thus when someone has the upper hand in a situation, they demonstrate how folks in lesser positions should be treated by how that person treats those folks. It is only logical that if you behave in one way, that you think others should behave in that way too. So if you have the law on your side and you demean and denigrate a group of people who do not adhere to your creed or religious beliefs, if you do not treat a minority with dignity, if you do not respect those who disagree with you; then you can have no reasonable expectation of respect, dignity or tolerance from those you disagreed with when the tables are reversed. To demand others do something different then what you did in the same situation is hypocrisy.
So if you worked against marriage equality, then you should have no expectation of respect from supporters of gay marriage. If you called homosexuality unnatural, immoral or something worse; if you gave money to the National Organization for Marriage; if you voted for a law banning same-sex marriage, then you were intolerant and to ask for tolerance now is the epitome of "do as I say, not as I do".
What the Supreme Court essentially did in overturning section 4 of DOMA and refusing to back Proposition 8 is to inform the United States that religious-fueled homophobia is not an acceptable legal basis for discrimination. Gay marriage is coming to every state. The best you can hope for now is something called grace and here it is:
No gay mafia is going to show up at your house and beat you for your beliefs. No one is going to burn down your house or spray paint vulgarity on your home. (Although if someone does, that person will be caught and prosecuted which is much more then most victims of gay bashing get.) No court is going to rule that your church or other religious institution has to consecrate a same-sex marriage. You will have to suffer some name calling but face it: being labelled a "homophobe" is much better then being compared to a stick about to be thrown on a bonfire - or murdered for that matter.
Grace is something given when it has not been earned. Grace is something hoped for, not demanded. So opponents of gay marriage: if you want tolerance, stop reminding the supporters of marriage equality why you shouldn't receive it.
Each person demonstrates how they think others should be treated by what they say and do. Thus when someone has the upper hand in a situation, they demonstrate how folks in lesser positions should be treated by how that person treats those folks. It is only logical that if you behave in one way, that you think others should behave in that way too. So if you have the law on your side and you demean and denigrate a group of people who do not adhere to your creed or religious beliefs, if you do not treat a minority with dignity, if you do not respect those who disagree with you; then you can have no reasonable expectation of respect, dignity or tolerance from those you disagreed with when the tables are reversed. To demand others do something different then what you did in the same situation is hypocrisy.
So if you worked against marriage equality, then you should have no expectation of respect from supporters of gay marriage. If you called homosexuality unnatural, immoral or something worse; if you gave money to the National Organization for Marriage; if you voted for a law banning same-sex marriage, then you were intolerant and to ask for tolerance now is the epitome of "do as I say, not as I do".
What the Supreme Court essentially did in overturning section 4 of DOMA and refusing to back Proposition 8 is to inform the United States that religious-fueled homophobia is not an acceptable legal basis for discrimination. Gay marriage is coming to every state. The best you can hope for now is something called grace and here it is:
No gay mafia is going to show up at your house and beat you for your beliefs. No one is going to burn down your house or spray paint vulgarity on your home. (Although if someone does, that person will be caught and prosecuted which is much more then most victims of gay bashing get.) No court is going to rule that your church or other religious institution has to consecrate a same-sex marriage. You will have to suffer some name calling but face it: being labelled a "homophobe" is much better then being compared to a stick about to be thrown on a bonfire - or murdered for that matter.
Grace is something given when it has not been earned. Grace is something hoped for, not demanded. So opponents of gay marriage: if you want tolerance, stop reminding the supporters of marriage equality why you shouldn't receive it.