With all of the progress made in recent months for equal rights for the LGBT community, we’ve also seen a reactionary movement. The recent Arizona bill that was–thank god—vetoed yesterday by Gov. Jan Brewer was the most extreme reactionary force against the LGBT community. But we’ve also seen the Internet whiners–those who wield no real power–staking claims against LGBT rights, many of whom invoke the Almighty God of Abraham. Behold the following:

Doesn’t matter what an earthly judge says. He or she will have to give account for his or her actions one day. It matters what the Heavenly Judge says and He has already handed down His ruling that regardless of the thumbs down I receive, homosexuality is an abomination.

“DrMarsh” (I doubt he or she is a real doctor) gets one thing right; It doesn’t matter to him or her that a judge ruled an anti-gay marriage bill unconstitutional. But the point is that here we see another example of how the anti-LGBT group is comprised mostly of religious ideas.

But during the last year or so I’ve been seeing increasing references to gay activists as terrorists. For example:

the only thing about religion is seems to be to attack those that believe in religion..what defense is there against the sinners attack? Refuse a gay and lose everything in court..that is not freedom of religion that is gay terrorism.

“Big Time” (who looks suspiciously like Howard Stern) has now sought to close the light-years-wide gap between the 9/11 hijackers and gay rights activists. Terrorism is a very powerful word. Let me define it for you:

Terrorism is the deliberate act of physical violence by non-state actors against a civilian population for the explicit purpose of forcing a government to affect change.

“Big Time” and others like him invoke the word “terrorism” to justify their claims of perceived “religious persecution.” But gay rights activists are not throwing bombs at civilians or flying planes into buildings to force the government to legalize gay marriage or to defend against the failed Arizona bill. They are filing lawsuits in court. They are doing the exact opposite of terrorism. They are using legal avenues set up by the American Constitution to voice their grievances and seek redress.

Terrorism is an awful thing that has caused the loss of countless lives around the world (many times in the name of religion). When the word “terrorism” is belittled for any reason, be it religious or non-religious, that also belittles what terrorism means. Calling a LGBT activist a terrorist not only raises them to the level of terrorist, but it also lowers terrorism to the level of LGBT activism. There is a massive difference between the two and should be respected, else we lose our ability to tell the difference.

A LGBT activist who uses actual violence against a civilian population to force the government to act is a terrorist. Let’s stop calling LGBT activists who file lawsuits or hold parades terrorists. That’s just absurd.