This has become a particularly popular tactic on the Left. When Pence swore in Senator Doug Jones (D., Ala.), the Leftist internet completely manufactured a narrative wherein Pence was deeply uncomfortable with Jones’s gay son (Newsweek’s headline: “Doug Jones’ Gay Son Gives Mike Pence Serious Side-Eye”). Gay Olympian Adam Rippon randomly decided to tear into Pence by stating that “for Mike Pence to say he’s a devout Christian man is completely contradictory.” When gay Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar and his husband attended breakfast with Pence, the media attempted to push a narrative about Pence’s supposed discomfort. When Pence’s wife began teaching at a Christian school, the media leapt to label her an anti-gay maniac.

There is no evidence for any of this. Pence has been dealing with gay men, including Buttigieg, his entire career. He differs from them on the definition of marriage. While I believe the government ought to exit the business of marriage altogether, there are plenty of public-policy reasons to stand for traditional marriage that aren’t rooted in animus.

More than that, it betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of religious people to suggest that their belief in the immorality of certain sexual behavior reflects animus for those who engage in that sexual behavior. Religious people generally believe that we all sin; that we all struggle with sin; and that participating in one particular type of sin doesn’t mean that the sinner is somehow inferior to those who engage in other types of sin.