Sometimes gay activists are dumb. Such is the case of a group of gays who decided to protest a Canadian florist who won’t provide flowers for a same-sex wedding. NOM is, of course, using this as a cry of victimhood:

Homosexual activists have protested outside the home of a Christian florist in Canada because she will not provide flowers for a lesbian wedding. The protestors dropped flowers tied with rainbow-coloured ribbons on the front lawn of the florist’s suburban home, and demanded that she be hauled before the courts. The intimidating protest was sparked when the lesbian couple’s ‘wedding planner’ wrote about the Christian florist’s stance on Twitter. Florist Kim Evans runs her business from her home in Moncton, New Brunswick. She previously told the lesbian couple by email: “As a born-again Christian, I must respect my conscience before God and have no part in this matter.” Outside the florist’s home, protestors spoke to news reporters, claiming they were ‘spreading a message of tolerance’.

Okay, so, let’s break this down. The “Christian florist,” of course, needs to get a grip. Outside of the fact that she’s really not supposed to be denying people business based on her personal beliefs, she’s already in an uphill battle being a “Christian florist,” in a world where she has to compete with, um, gay florists. We already know that the Religious Right is going to turn this woman into a martyr for “standing up for her beliefs,” by not taking money for flowers at an event she doesn’t personally like.  And yes, I realize that this woman runs her flower business out of her home, but it is still her home.  So since they’re already going to turn her into a martyr, don’t help them.

Dan Savage is right about this:

Not cool.

[…]

As peaceful as this entirely legal protest was, I’m against making people feel uncomfortable or unsafe in their own homes. Even bigots. And staging protests outside people’s homes is a tactic usually employed by rightwing anti-abortion activists and the KKK back in the day. I don’t think this is a tactic that gay rights movement should endorse or adopt.

To bring this down to a personal level: I say a lot of shit that pisses off the religious right. I don’t want rightwing anti-gay haters turning up on the sidewalk outside my house, annoying my neighbors, and, most importantly, making my son feel unsafe in his own home. (Honestly sometimes I’m surprised that they haven’t; I’d even go so far to express my gratitude—yes, to the haters—that they haven’t.) Protesting outside people’s homes? I don’t think they should do that to us, any of us, and I don’t think we should do that to them, any of them. Not Tony, not Maggie, not these florists.

See, part of the reason that LGBT people and our allies are winning the battle for hearts and minds in the US, Canada and all kinds of other places, is that it’s fairly easy to look at the two sides and see who has the moral upper hand. Do we do lots of things that piss off the Religious Right? Hell yes. But the thing about it is that every time we do something, stage a protest, fight an unjust law, or whatever else, we need to be able to say “Not only were we right, but we fought it right.” And no, staging a protest at someone’s private residence is not cool, unless we’re talking about, say, The White House.

I mean, please, does this even look sensible? Imaging/messaging fail, guys.