Human beings are imperfect, and because we are, we must live with each other’s flaws. This is true of marriage, employer-employee relations, and social relationships. But there’s an important distinction between opinion and behavior. And behavior matters more than opinion. I can live with someone’s bigotry if he keeps it to himself and doesn’t act it out. It doesn’t matter to me what’s in a person’s heart until it starts to affect others. That, of course, is what the furor over this Indiana law is all about. It was intended to be a legal shield for bigots who want to behave badly in open society. The crowd called them on it, and they’re backing down. That’s a satisfactory ending to this brouhaha. They’ll continue to be bigots, but under a rock, and that’s good enough.
(Adapted from a comment I posted on Horsesass.Org.)