Among the many conservative responses to President Obama’s second inaugural address was commentator Pat Buchanan, who appeared on Fox News to decry the President’s inclusion of various social issues. He described the speech as “not uplifting,” “not really poetry,” “pedestrian,” and “deeply partisan” but specifically attacked the reference to the Stonewall Riots:

BUCHANAN: This is a cross between a State of the Union speech with an agenda and a partisan rally given to the DNC. And so, I think, the president lost a real opportunity. Look, they usually talk about what? When I was a kid, Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill. What was he talking about? Stonewall. That’s a barroom brawl in Greenwich Village in 1969, when cops were hassling gays in their bar, and the gays fought back and threw them all out. Does that belong in a presidential inaugural?

Jon Stewart took Buchanan to task on Tuesday night’s The Daily Show, retorting, “For the losing side of history, I’m Pat Buchanan.” Watch it:

Diminishing Stonewall to a “barroom brawl” is the equivalent of referring to Selma as a “street fight” or Seneca Falls as a “spa retreat.” It fails to recognize the historic turning point that Stonewall symbolized, including the launch of forthright activism through groups like the Gay Liberation Front and the first pride march. Given Buchanan’s penchant for attacking any kind of social justice, perhaps he resented the mere suggestion that gays and lesbians have had any kind of struggle for equality whatsoever.

The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins was not pleased that President Obama used his inaugural speech Monday to compare the Stonewall riots to Selma and Seneca Falls. On his radio show yesterday, Perkins poorly described Stonewall as “homosexuals… pushing back for special rights,” and went on to claim that gays never have their civil rights violated:

PERKINS: Seneca Falls was a woman’s suffrage movement, giving women the right to vote. Selma, obviously, a push to ensure that African Americans — black American in this country had full voting rights and civil rights. Stonewall, many people may not be aware of, was a move of New York of homosexuals that were pushing back for special rights. To tie all those together, there is not a single person in this country today that is gay or lesbian that are denied the rights to vote, the right to work, or doing anything else.

What they’re seeking, and it’s a little disingenuous ’cause he doesn’t say it, but it’s code what he’s saying here. He’s going to push to give them the right to redefine marriage. They have every right that you and I have today. This President has a very loaded agenda.

Listen to it:

Perkins was right that Stonewall wasn’t about voting, but it was about another fundamental right: the freedom of assembly. Back in the 1960s, the LGBT community was regularly denied service in bars, and when they did find safe places to gather (like the Stonewall Inn), the police would regularly raid those bars and load the gay patrons into paddy wagons. The riots that ensued in June of 1969 were a response to police brutality from a community who simply wanted to enjoy a drink in a space where they didn’t have to hide their identities. There is nothing “special” about such an expectation in a free society.

Just like in the response from the National Organization for Marriage, Perkins claims that gays and lesbians have equality under the law, specifically mentioning “the right to work.” Of course, as noted in the earlier post, gays and lesbians can be fired from their jobs just for being gay and lesbian in 29 states — 34 states for people who are transgender. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a bill to create national protections for LGBT employees, has floundered in Congress for decades and notably, the Family Research Council opposes it!

It seems that conservatives are attempting to arbitrarily declare equality won on behalf of LGBT people, despite the obvious evidence to the contrary. This “already treated equally” argument is designed to reserve marriage as a privilege just for heterosexual people, as well as protect the so-called “religious freedom” to flagrantly discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Perkins, Brian Brown, and the other pundits who have used this line in reaction to the President’s speech demonstrate that they have absolutely no comprehension of the discrimination, harassment, and inequality experienced by LGBT people every day, let alone compassion on their behalf.