"...demand equality and risk being clobbered."

Tom Scharbach of PurpleScarf has a post from January 11th entitled "Civil Unions Unmasked" in which he states that "...the idea that abandoning the push for civil marriage and instead pushing for civil unions would defuse social conservative backlash against gay and lesbian equality" is wrong. "The idea that gays and lesbians can somehow move to civil marriage in "increments" by appearing to give up the fight for full equality is an idea that has been tested, now, and proven false." In his opinion, "It is this simple: If gays and lesbians want be "tolerated", then gays and lesbians should be "sensible" and ask to be "tolerated", accepting something less than full citizenship. If, on the other hand, gays and lesbians want to be treated as every other American citizen is treated, then gays and lesbians have no choice but to demand equality and risk being clobbered." A thoughtful read at his PurpleScarf blog.