The distinction between being personally comfortable with gay people and being publicly supportive of their political rights is an important one. As Whippersnapper Zeitlin puts it, "we should try to cultivate [the idea] that someone can be 'uncomfortable' with gays in the private sphere, yet in the public sphere, he can advocate policies he knows are fair and promote social and legal equality, because he thinks these values are important." Comfort with a lifestyle you don't understand cannot be legislated, it can only be learned. But equal rights can be legislated, and it would be powerful indeed for the ideal of tolerance to be judged inviolable enough that it is upheld even by those who haven't yet arrived at a place of personal acceptance.
