Someone always comes out of those looking like a real ass, and usually everyone does. Still, if you compare the number of states where a black person could marry a white person ca. 1940 to the number where two gay people can marry today I think we both know which number is bigger. You don't see people spitting on gay kids because, once again, most of them don't wear shirts that say, "gay kid". Which is also why kids who aren't gay can still be persecuted for being gay to the point of suicide. It's also entirely possible that the level of brutality we, as a society, will tolerate toward our chosen pariahs is less now. Even if I were to grant that gays today are somehow "less second class citizens" than blacks 50 years ago, we're simply reduced to asking how much disenfranchisement is acceptable for law abiding Americans. For me, any level is too great; how many of YOUR rights have to be stripped before it becomes an outrage...?