Basic Decency

This WaPo op-ed doesn't harangue the Republicans with a recitation of their stomach-turning rhetorical abuses of gay people. Nor does it invoke any theoretical schema by which to validate gay civil rights. It merely demonstrates concretely that gay people are people, and just as capable as heterosexuals of being good people, and that they are not some scapegoat-able "other" but in fact our own friends and family. The lesson is clear. Rhetorical abuse, once unleashed, is not easily contained, and transposes without much difficult into very real abuse.

Perhaps this is the most effective line of argumentation of all.