Via Ezra: Matt Zeitlan hopes the public can be convinced to support LGBT rights under the rationale that as decent people, we should support equality even for those whose lifestyles we find discomfiting. It's a nice thought, but alas, I fear that chronology is exactly reversed. Surveys show that the number one indicator of increased tolerance of LGBT individuals is knowing an LGBT person. As Pew reports:

Personal contact with homosexuality is also a key factor in shaping people's views on this policy issue. Americans who have a friend, colleague or family member who is gay are roughly twice as likely to favor gay marriage as those who do not (39% to 21%).

The good news is that Americans are trending in a direction of growing tolerance for LGBT people and lifestyles. People in their teens and twenties are evenly divided on the question of marriage equality, while older generations overwhelmingly reject the idea. But it's important to understand the contours of the organized opposition to equality for LGBT Americans. Forty-five percent of Americans who oppose marriage equality say homosexuality is immoral, a sin, in contradiction to the Bible, or against their religious beliefs. Another twelve percent cite "[homosexuality] is just wrong." And then there are the nine percent who call homsexuality "not natural or normal."

It's clear that opposition to marriage equality and LGBT rights generally is based on unadulterated intolerance. So asking people to tolerate that which they find immoral, unnatural, sinful, and wrong is not a winning strategy.