Are Marriage Equality Opponents Bigots?

Nobody likes to be called a bigot. That includes people who oppose same-sex marriage, who went a little ballistic on newly-minted Washington Post blogger David Weigel this week, after Weigel delivered them a stinging blow in less than 140 characters.

"I can empathize with everyone I cover except for the anti-gay marriage bigots. In 20 years no one will admit they were part of that," Weigel tweeted over the weekend.

While Weigel is right that in twenty years, nobody is going to want to admit that they once opposed same-sex marriage, is he right about calling same-sex marriage opponents bigots? Are the folks who yell "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!" or those who make the case that gay marriage threatens children bigoted?

How about those fifty years ago who were against interracial marriage? Were they bigots?

Seemingly under pressure, Weigel issued an apology, backtracking on his words. "I apologize for calling same-sex-marriage opponents 'bigots,'" Weigel wrote in his mea culpa. "I was specifically referring to people who spend their working hours opposing gay marriage, not just people who vote to ban it. But those people aren't bigots, either."

So just who is a bigot, then?

Let's turn to Merriam Webster, now that the dictionary has been allowed back in public schools. According to MW, a bigot is "a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group with hatred and intolerance."

Let's see here. In California, we have anti-gay marriage demonstrators punching gay marriage proponents. In Pennsylvania, we have U.S. Senate candidates calling supporters of gay marriage champions of incest. In Minnesota, we have Catholic Bishops saying that the civil rights of gays and lesbians should be challenged.

With all due respect to Weigel and his apology, these people certainly sound like bigots.

Some, like Politics Daily's Matt Lewis, disagree. According to Lewis, using the word "bigot" to describe marriage equality opponents takes things one level too far. "Bigot is awfully strong language" to use, Lewis writes, if you're trying to make the case for tolerance. Touché.

To label someone a bigot, or not to label someone a bigot: that is the question.

By all accounts of the definition, it doesn't seem far flung at all to call people who abrasively and sometimes violently try to take away or deny civil rights to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people bigots. But is it palatable in the political sense?

Now maybe that's the real question. But as George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "All great truths begin as blasphemies." Perhaps nothing illustrates this more than David Weigel.

Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com