>>15044I don't buy it. The Westboro Baptists're hated by pretty much everyone, being that they've gone out their way to make everyone do so. Frankly, they seem rather insincere in their actual beliefs, operating more as a way to drum up controversy and therefor money in inevitable litigation. But even if we discard that, they are not a significant group, being pretty much just one family anyway, and certainly not one liked by the right, considering their penchant for showing up at the funerals of soldiers.
These people have no authority, nor do they garner any 'defense' from a wider one.
Moreover, if we apply your rhetoric anyways, while they lack an 'institution', these types certainly benefit from the umbrella defense of "LGBT", a defense I might add that is significantly more sturdy than the porous defense of "christian".
You critique someone who is LGBT and you're a 'bigot'. You do so for a Christian, and not even Christians will bat an eye.
And I would further posit that at least in the American context, "Christian" has about as much "structure" as "LGBT" besides; American baptists do not follow a Pope, they do not derive authority from Rome, they do not default to the judgement of any council, they each follow their own dogma and practices in their own communities entirely separate from such things. They are no more unified than the 'LGBT community'.
