Nerd Analysis: A Sociology Professor Considers the Gay Marriage Debate

Thoughts by a professor of sociology at the University of Kent.  The professor happens to support gay marriage, but that ends up being beside the point.  Here is a bit of it:

From a sociological perspective, the ascendancy of the campaign for gay marriage provides a fascinating story about the dynamics of the cultural conflicts that prevail in Western society. During the past decade the issue of gay marriage has been transformed into a cultural weapon that explicitly challenges prevailing norms through condemning those who oppose it. This is not so much a call for legal change as a cause: one that endows its supporters with moral superiority and demotes its opponents with the status of moral inferiority. 

... What we have here is the casual affirmation of a double standard: tolerance towards supporters of gay marriage and intolerance directed towards its opponents.