Why I care so much about the Boy Scouts vote

While LGBT rights fights are uniquely personal for LGBT people for obvious reasons, there is usually some degree of distance between known experience and current debate.

With marriage, the fight tends to be prospective. You fight for the right to someday marry, both for yourself and future generations. It is exciting, but is an unknown to all of us until we obtain the freedom.

With hate crimes or nondiscrimination laws, the fight can feel theoretical. You hope you will never have to use them, b...