First,
Yes, I did say that the republican party is homophobic. Perhaps I should not have made a sweeping generalization based on local experience. I apologize. What I should have said was, “My experience with Republicans in my state is that they are homophobic”.
I’ve never heard any one say we should attack gays, only that we shouldn’t allow them and flaunt their lifestyle, because it is immoral.
Yes, I will admit that I have yet to hear a republican elected official tell people to go out and beat up homosexuals (although I have heard a few come close). However, if we are going to start passing laws against homosexuals, then I would view that as an attack. The issue here is our “Catholic” view of chastity. Are we also going to pass and enforce laws against unmarried men and women living together? How about high school and college kids having sex outside of marriage? Masturbation? Lust? These are all “chastity” or “moral” issues.
Furthermore, I am very uncomfortable with a government legislating a definition of marriage. A government that has the power to do that could also some day say that all churches must offer marriage ceremonies for homosexuals. I think marriage should be taken out of government altogether. In the eyes of the law, all “married couples” should have a domestic partnership for legal benefits, etc. If you want to be “married” then go to your place of worship and have your priest, pastor, rabbi, or whatever, perform your ceremony of preference. Marriage means different things to many different people. To us Catholics, it is a sacrament, limited to this earth. For mormons it is a ceremony that has eternal implications. Other faith traditions have different definitions as well. It is not the Govt.'s job to try and make them all fit into one pot.
Finally, it is not our job as Christians to encourage legislation that discriminates against a group of people even if we don’t agree with them. I describe myself as a “Pro-life Liberal”. I think the Govt. should leave people alone (this includes the bedroom of two consenting adults) unless people are being killed (i.e. abortion, embryonic stem cell research, war, capital punishment etc). I know the phrase “Pro-life Liberal” may sound strange to some, but, well, this is a strange world.