Where there’s a but…

I was reading a story this morning about a gay soap opera romance in which the couple never kiss — bizarre considering that soap opera characters are usually all over each other all the time. In the story, they mentioned letters to the editor of Soap Opera Digest giving weak protest against the gay characters. When I see a quote from some intolerant bigot along the lines of “I don’t care if Luke is gay, but I don’t want to see it,” I have trouble wrapping my mind around it. Because obviously, you do care. This is always the cover argument of bigots, this claim that they don’t harbor any bigotry toward a gay person — as long as they don’t have to see them. Think about it for a moment, this way: “I don’t have anything against black people, as long as they don’t appear in public.” “I don’t care if you’re Jewish, but I don’t want to have to hear you ever mention it.” “I don’t mind Asian people, but I wish they would stay in their own country.”
Just a tip: if there’s a “but” in the sentence, everything that came before it is null and void. And everything that comes after it is what makes someone a bigot, not a reasoned compromiser.