Dr. Ben Carson, the latest apple of the Tea Party’s eye, made yet another appearance on the friendly airwaves of Fox News on Tuesday to gripe about the Obama administration, denounce the liberal media, and equate gay couples with pedophiles and proponents of bestiality.

Carson, who stumbled onto the national stage and into the Republican Party’s heart almost two months ago after he gave a speech in front of President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast in which he called for a regressive tax system that punishes the poorest Americans, was a guest on Sean Hannity’s show yesterday, and ended the interview on the most hateful of notes:

CARSON: My thoughts are that marriage is between a man and a woman, it’s a well-established uh, fundamental pillar of society. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA [the North American Man/Boy Love Association], be they people who believe in beastiality, it doesn’t matter what they are, they don’t get to change the definition. So it’s not something that’s against gays, it’s against anybody who wants to come along and change the fundamental definitions of pillars of society. It has signifcant ramifications.

The segment ended shorty afterward, leaving Hannity with no time to clarify whether Carson, himself a black man, would have also been opposed to the 1967 Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia, a decision that redefined the same “fundamental pillar of society” as something that could not be inhibited by race.

Carson’s comments also puts him at odds with every major medical association in the country. Both the American Medical Association’s code of conduct and the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic Statistical Manual contain strong and unambiguous language on homosexuality as neither a medical nor psychological condition but rather a perfectly healthy and biologically-rooted lifestyle, and remain critical of anyone who suggests otherwise.

He is also far from the first Republican to equate homosexuality to things like pedophilia. Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, state lawmakers and conservatives everywhere have all sought to paint the LGBT community and pedophiles with the same brush, even as their own party is pulled in the direction of equality.

Conservatives have long claimed that they’re somehow the victim of persecution when they’re called bigots for opposing same-sex marriage, like when Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said at CPAC, “Just because I believe states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot.” But conservatives are adding a novel layer to this trite argument, claiming they actually very much support gay people.

San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, who recently said that gay couples can never achieve the same intimacy as straight couples, opened Tuesday’s anti-gay Marriage March rally on the National Mall with the following plea:

CORDILEONE:  I want to begin with a word to those who disagree with us on this issue and may be watching us right now: we love you, we are your neighbors, and we want to be your friends, and we want you to be happy.

Please understand that we don’t hate you, and that we are not motivated by animus or bigotry; it is not our intention to offend anyone, and if we have, I apologize; please try to listen to us fairly, and calmly, and try to understand us and our position, as we will try to do the same for you.

The conservative Media Research Center tried to make the same case with this video from the National Organization for Marriage’s rally, full of anti-equality conservatives proclaiming their love for gay people:

Similarly, inside the Supreme Court, those defending Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) tried to downplay the notion that either measure targeted gays and lesbians. These post-hoc arguments didn’t seem to persuade Justice Elena Kagan, who highlighted a 1996 House report showing Congress passed DOMA to express “moral disapproval of homosexuality.”

Indeed, as the expression goes, “you can’t polish a turd,” and despite the Republican Party’s best intentions to downplay or sugarcoat how offensive its positions against LGBT equality are, that doesn’t actually change that they’re still offensive. Unpacking conservatives’ latest talking points quickly reveals the judgment — and thus prejudice — underlying their claims.

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The coalition that advocated last year for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in Minnesota has continued to fight as legislators now consider a marriage equality bill. The so-called “Minnesota for Marriage” coalition is urging pastors to use their sermon on April 7 to take a stand against same-sex marriage, and the provided materials — a “Sermon starter,” accompanying PowerPoint presentation, and bulletin insert — are gratuitously anti-gay. Notably, one passage not only condemns gay people as having a chosen behavior, but then compares the LGBT movement to Nazis for peddling untruths:

Third, there is a definitive problem. Homosexuals claim: “We were born this way; it is in our genes; God made us gay.” They cite old “gay gene” studies predominantly conducted by researchers who are homosexuals; studies that have been repudiated by credible research. Yet these same biased and discredited studies have been widely publicized by the liberal media as true and factual. They essentially practice Joseph Goebel’s Nazi philosophy of propaganda, which is basically this: Tell a lie long enough and loud enough and eventually most mindless Americans will believe it.

Hear this: God did not make anyone homosexual. The Bible declares that the definitive problem is ours: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way…” (Isaiah 53:6). Every one of us has a sin nature that twists and perverts God-given desires not only toward homosexuality, but toward all sorts of sin, including sexual sins such as promiscuity, adultery, pedophilia, etc. Our sinful nature is the root of all manner of evil, but with God’s help, we can choose not to give into those evil desires.

Dr. James Dobson says: “I am certain that homosexuality does not result from irresistible genetic influences, as some would have us believe.” Scientifically speaking, there is no gay gene. Listen, I do not believe that God would not place in your genetic code something that would damn your immortal soul. Again, it is our sin nature and its perverted and twisted desires that people give into, just as the Bible says in Rom. 1:24-27. That’s the definitive problem.

To sum up: LGBT activists use Nazi propaganda techniques, homosexuality is comparable to promiscuity, adultery, and pedophilia, and gays are sinners who have “perverted and twisted desires.”

The books this sermon claims have been “repudiated” were published in the early 1990s, and generally aren’t cited anywhere by anybody. The American Psychological Association explains that sexual orientation does have a biological component, and the latest research suggests that sexual orientation is determined by epigenetics — this means the “environmental factors” impacting gene presentation take place in the womb and have little to do with upbringing.

The clear takeaway is that Minnesota for Marriage has little interest in preserving “tradition” or “responsible procreation”; theirs is a mission of hateful condemnation.

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report returned from hiatus this week, and both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have noted that many significant voices are speaking out for same-sex marriage.

On Wednesday night, Stewart highlighted the many Democratic Senators who have come out for same-sex marriage over the past week, calling it “a historic shift in public opinion and the most boring gay pride parade float ever.” Stewart then juxtaposed this with Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) comments that he’s not a bigot:

STEWART: Believing that the definition of marriage should be left to the states doesn’t make you a bigot, but believing that those states should define that to be “traditional marriage”… that does actually make you a bigot.

Watch it:

Meanwhile, Colbert was “shaken to the core” by Bill O’Reilly’s admission that he supports same-sex marriage. He highlighted Papa Bear O’Reilly’s past statements comparing same-sex to “plural marriage,” and marriage to turtles, ducks, and goats, demonstrating how a more enlightened understanding of marriage equality erases such silly fears.

Watch it:

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said this week that her views on same-sex marriage are “evolving”:

MURKOWSKI: The term ‘evolving view’ has been perhaps overused, but I think it is an appropriate term for me to use… I think you are seeing a change in attitude, change in tolerance, I guess, and an acceptance that what marriage should truly be about is a lasting, loving, committed relationship with respect to the individual… It may be that Alaska will come to revisit its position on gay marriage, and as a policy maker I am certainly reviewing that very closely.

Listen to it (via Alaska Public Radio):

Indeed, the term “evolving” has been used by the likes of President Obama and Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), both of whom eventually came out for full marriage equality. Similarly, Alaska’s other Senator, Mark Begich (D), endorsed same-sex marriage earlier this week.

Murkowski has a mixed voting record on LGBT issues. In 2004, she voted in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have added a ban on same-sex marriage to the U.S. Constitution, but in 2010, she voted to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the ban on gay, lesbian, and bisexual military servicemembers.

Bishop Thomas Tobin

A Rhode Island Senate committee is still considering marriage equality legislation after last week’s marathon 12-hour open hearing, but a Catholic bishop claims that the Supreme Court cases are a sufficient reason to stall the bill. Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Providence Diocese released the following statement on Wednesday:

In light of the historic deliberations of the U.S. Supreme Court on same-sex marriage, it would be appropriate for the General Assembly of Rhode Island to defer any action on this critical issue for the time being. Any legislative action that is taken now could very well be rendered completely null and void by the decision of the Supreme Court expected this June. It is likely that the Supreme Court will decide this matter for us, one way or another. Let’s wait to see what the highest court of the land says about this issue which is so very important to many Rhode Islanders.

This statement is patently false. Nothing about either case before the Supreme Court could possibly impact Rhode Island’s marriage law, except to make same-sex marriage legal there (less likely) or ensure that all married couples receive federal benefits (more likely). The possibility of the former offers no compelling reason not to proceed with legalizing same-sex marriage in the meantime, and the potential of the latter actually shows that advancing the bill will do even more to support same-sex families in the state.

Tobin is playing the only card he has left to oppose marriage equality: delay, delay, delay. He’s counting on lawmakers not to remember that justice delayed is justice denied.