A reader writes:
Whatever else Ashley might have said, she didn't advocate killing gay people. She spoke approvingly of the Leviticus chapter which implies God will kill gays, which, loathsome as that is, isn't the same as advocating killing them. You're in the right on this. Don't undermine your position by resorting to distortion and hyperbole. Maggie Gallagher is a sophist, an expert in winning arguments based on the slightest imprecision in her opponent's statements. Don't play into her hands.
Hooey. In Leviticus, which Ashley says is "black and white," it is not God who is doing the killing. It is the law. "They shall be put to death." That means they shall be executed. For someone to insist that the Bible is "black and white" and to cite this full passage, while gay people are being hanged in this world by theocrats in other countries and hounded and murdered in Africa by religious fundamentalists, Christianist and Islamist, is simply despicable. For Maggie Gallagher to lend her encouragement to such a person and cast her as a victim in this context is ... well, it's Maggie Gallagher.
(AFP photo of young gay men hanged for their sexual orientation in Iran.)