At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) gathering, haughty, paunchy Ryan Sorba, chairman of the California chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom, strode to the microphone and shouted, “I would like to condemn CPAC for bringing GoPride to this event.”

Immediately an inarticulate howl arose from the crowd.

Perhaps his coming diatribe was influenced by their low standards of communication.  Sorba did not express himself much more eloquently than the skinny kid a few rows back who was giving him the ever–so–blood–chilling thumbs–down gesture of disapproval, but he did manage to verbally outmaneuver his foes.

Observe:

“Civil rights are grounded in natural rights,” Sorba smugly asserted at CPAC.

“Boooo!” argued the crowd.

“Natural rights are grounded in human nature,” Sorba continued.

“Ahhhh! Boooo!” the crowd retorted.

“Human nature is a rational relationship; the intelligible end of the reproductive act is reproduction,” Sorba finished, gripping the podium, alight with fury. “Do you understand that?”

Scattered clapping punctured the crowd’s rebuke: “Boooo! Arrrgh! Boooo!”

The backlash that began in the seats of CPAC has spread into the political arena.

Commentators across the spectrum have denounced Sorba’s challenge, calling him “homophobic.”

Sorba could be called foolhardy, belligerent and arrogant.

None of these terms, however, belie any sense of fear, rational or irrational.

Sorba showed no fear. He addressed a room packed full of hostile people, criticizing the very organization that permitted him to speak, and simultaneously shredded two new liberal taboos: the mocking of women and homosexuals.

“The lesbians at Smith College protest better than you do!” he sneered, eliciting screams of fury.

That was pretty rude, I thought as I watched the C–SPAN coverage.

It was also incredibly brave.

Brave, because the homosexual movement, a liberal sub–faction, proliferates like melanoma.

TV shows, shelves of books at Barnes and Noble and innumerable Internet forums are dedicated to its goals: Numb the opposition with repetition while resigning the neutral to its new, elevated status. It inundates popular culture with its propaganda, living by the Orwellian mantra: Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.

Ryan Sorba, the sudden, lone, vocal, delightful opposition, startled many spectators out of a reverie.

He’s also attracted a lynch mob. Bloggers are chasing after him, bellowing, “What people do in their bedrooms is no one’s business!” and “ Why did CPAC even let him talk?” and, of course, “Boooo!”

Some have marshaled intelligent, detailed cases against Sorba’s denunciation of CPAC, but they have tossed them aside to blend into the wailing crowd. Which crowd has time for deliberation? Which crowd gives three cheers for moderation? Not one hell–bent on humiliating and scourging the resistance.

Had Sorba the time and presence of mind to formulate a better response than “Bring it!” to the crowd’s jeers, he might have quoted Mark Twain: “The idea of YOU lynching anybody!  It’s amusing.  The idea of you thinking you had pluck enough to lynch a MAN! Why, a MAN’S safe in the hands of ten thousand of your kind –– as long as it’s daytime and you’re not behind him.”

Those self–appointed pharisaical incarnations of tolerance would do well to pause before hanging him. A faction that can’t stomach dissent, juvenile or otherwise, makes a mockery of itself.

The CPAC brouhaha proves that the homosexual movement isn’t founded on honest arguments. The only principle that unites its members is organized touchiness.

Katie McHugh is a member of the class of 2013. She can be reached at [email protected]