I wrote this after a conversation with a specific person, and I know that this person doesn't value reason the way I do. It is their habit to make a gut decision on all things, without comparing one gut impulse to the last. It creates contradictions for those of us who bother to look (which this person evidently doesn't).

Basically, they claim all the same things I claim to value because their gut impulse is to not say racist/homophobic things. But there is evidently no reflexive recoiling from believing or supporting things that are--when you get down to brass tacks--purely racist or homophobic. This is what leads me to believe that not only is this person not terribly inclined toward self-examination, but they see no reason why they should do more than make a surface effort not to seem bigoted.

This is someone who "has gay friends," but when I imply that the T in LGBT rightfully includes transgendered folk in the struggle, they protest that they know someone who's trans but "heterosexual and wonderful" (and I shouldn't have to explain why this is a stupidly homophobic distinction to make).

That is the comment of someone who knows they can't say homophobic things, but secretly believes them anyway. I don't know whether they just haven't examined their beliefs in light of their opinion that prejudice is bad, or whether they have examined them and explicitly made an allowance for homophobia. The person's either being sloppy and negligent, or really doesn't think there's anything wrong with homophobia--even if society pressures them to look down on it publicly.

Neither interpretation does much for their esteem in my eyes. I'm not sure which I'm even hoping is true, but I'm betting it's one of those.