The new argument: Gays must die for their rights

The website thinkprogress.org has thrown a light onto the newest argument being thrown our way by the bigots who feel justified at denying an entire segment of the population their rights: Gay Rights are not Civil Rights, and are in no way comparable.

Take, for instance, this statement from Family Research Council's Tony Perkins (full article here):

You try to compare this to interracial marriage. It is not the same thing. There were extra provisions put that would prohibit people that were man and woman to marry. This is redefining marriage. It’s a totally different issue.

Even more disturbing is another trend in Right-wing punditry: the argument that Gays cannot claim to be oppressed, and cannot claim to be fighting for their Civil Rights, because they have not suffered enough violence to earn those rights.

Exhibit A: Governor Mike Huckabee, appearing on the ABC series The View and being interviewed by Joy Behar (full article here):

HUCKABEE: It’s a different set of rights. People who are homosexuals should have every right in terms of their civil rights, to be employed, to do anything they want. But that’s not really the issue. I know you talked about it and I think you got into it a little bit early on. But when we’re talking about a redefinition of an institution, that’s different than individual civil rights. We’re never going to convince each other.

BEHAR: Well, segregation was an institution, too, in a way. it was right there on the books.

HUCKABEE: But here is the difference. Bull Connor was hosing people down in the streets of Alabama. John Lewis got his skull cracked on the Selma bridge.

Exhibit B: Tara Wall of the Washington Times (full op-ed piece here):

Black civil and religious leaders - rightfully - have expressed outrage at the gay community's co-opting "civil rights" to include gay sex. Blacks were stoned, hung, and dragged for their constitutional right to "sit at the table." Whites - gay or not - already had a seat at that table. There is no comparison. Activists argue that, like skin color, gays don't choose their lifestyle. Even if, for the sake of argument, that were so, homosexuals are still "choosing" to get married. To compare voters denying what is not a right to blacks dying for what is - is beyond the pale.

I have two words for Mr. Huckabee and Ms. Wall: Matthew. Shepard. Try telling his parents, his family, his friends, that gay people have not suffered enough violence to justify their calls for equal rights. Try saying the same thing to all the gay people in the nation who have been beaten up, bullied, and driven to suicide, all because the people they love and form attractions to happen to be of the same gender.

I have a question for Mr. Huckabee and Ms. Wall as well: How many of us have to die before you admit that maybe we deserve the rights we're crying out for? How many people's lives have to be senselessly ruined before your bigoted bloodlust is sated?