Now conservatives are in the closet.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Rights of gays and conservatives

Between Vermont voting for same-sex marriage and other states working overtime to do the same, as Orwellian as it may sound, the progression appears to be clear and undeniable, according to Michael Brown, director of the Coalition of Conscience, Charlotte, N.C., and author of several books on homosexuality and related topics.

First, gay activists came out of the closet and began to demand their rights. Next, they insisted that conservatives (especially those with a Judeo-Christian moral foundation) recognize those rights. Their next goal, indicates Brown, is to take away the rights of conservatives--the rights of freedom of conscience; in other words, freedom of speech and religion. The gay lobby wants to put conservatives in the closet--and it is happening right before our eyes, Brown insists. "If homosexuality is legitimate in every respect, then any opposition to homosexuality is illegitimate."

He warns that:

* Where gay marriage becomes the law of the land, opposition to same-sex marriage will be prosecuted as unlawful.

* As a foretaste of what is to come, Elaine Photography of New Mexico was found guilty of discrimination for refusing to shoot the commitment ceremony of a lesbian couple.

* In California, a Christian physician was found guilty of refusing to offer medical services to a lesbian woman who wanted to be artificially inseminated in order to have a baby with her partner.

* In Massachusetts, elementary school parents were told they did not have the...