For years, wingnuts argued that gays asking for marriage equality wanted “special rights” not given to anyone else. This makes no sense to me, but it’s still their argument. Just google “gays want special rights” and you get one tirade after another like this one, which basically says that same-sex marriage is wrong because the author says it is; therefore, if we let gays marry we are granting them special rights.

I agree with Nathaniel Frank that the homophobic view is pure narcissism. It makes sense only if you accept as a “given” that homosexuality is abnormal or depraved. So, in the homophobe’s minds, same-sex marriage amounts to a state approval of depravity that no one else gets.

Otherwise, their argument just plain makes no sense.

But NOW the shoe is moving to the other foot, so to speak, because wingnuts are asking for special privileges for themselves to be able to discriminate against others, or to allow employers to impose conditions on employees purely because of the employer’s religious beliefs. I say this amounts to the religious right asking for special rights and privileges other people don’t get.

I’m reacting to a couple of articles by Daniel Linker that basically says, if righties play the religion card they get to do whatever they want, because religion. (See “Is opposing gay marriage the same as being a racist?” and Are secular liberals getting cocky?) And I argue that Linker is asking for a special dispensation to ignore the establishment clause.

See also Ed Kilgore.