I'm not saying it was a non-issue for him, Don.

I'm saying that gay rights issues are not a subject that gets me all worked up or that I feel any need to fight over with other people (as some of you here apparently do...both on the pro and con side of the issue). It just doesn't push my buttons. Period. It is not something that haunts my particular political anxiety closet.

I feel empathy for any human being who gets beaten up and tortured for who they are, but I have no particular ax to grind in regards to the specific matter of gay rights issues, I'm basically uninterested in those issues, it doesn't push my emotional buttons, and that's all there is to it.

I'll leave it to those of you who emotionally obsessed with this particular issue to accuse each other of every horrible, ugly thing you can dredge up out of your personal well of angst, outrage, and resentment, because it draws nothing but a big "yawn" from me. You're like a bunch of rabid dogs fighting in a pit. The fact that I don't wish to jump in that pit with you and participate does not in any way indicate my lack of regard for the unfortunate sufferings of someone like Matthew Shepard. It just indicates that I don't share your emotional addiction to obsessing over this particular issue, that's all.