This week, the House of Representatives passed legislation intended to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. It was hate crimes legislation, and there’s a lot to disagree with when it comes to the legal foundations of the category of hate crimes. I am deeply uneasy myself with the idea that people should be given extra punishments because of the ideas motivating their criminal behavior.

However, when it comes to the underlying intention of the legislation – to protect the rights of LGBT Americans, I have no dispute. They have rights to live as heterosexual Americans do, without fear of being attacked or discriminated against because of their sexuality, and there’s a great deal that the

When U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert spoke this week against the legislation, he didn’t object to the legal philosophy of providing additional punishment according to intent. He objected to the very idea that homosexual Americans should have rights. He said, “What we have done indicates this body has no shame. You know, we will take our military fighting for us, and attach a gay rights agenda to get it accomplished. You know, what’s next? Where else do we go? What shame is there left? I guess there’s more to be seen.”

What shame is there left? What shame is there in the first place? Why does Louie Gohmert believe that recognizing the equality of all Americans under the law is something to be ashamed of?

Equality under the law is merely what the Constitution requires, as a part of our liberty. If Representative Gohmert is ashamed of equality, then he’s ashamed of our Constitution. Let him change the Constitution, if he must, but until the Constitution is changed, Gohmert, like all his colleagues, has sworn an oath to uphold equality and that oath must be followed.

The majority of people enlisted in the Armed Forces don’t care a bit about the sexuality of the people they serve with. They care more about other things, like whether the people they serve with know how to do their jobs right. That’s why the effort to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell isn’t a great controversy within the military itself – just within the Congress, where demagogues think that they can gain political advantage by appealing to prejudice.

This weekend, the National Equality March is working to bring the demand for equality under the law, regardless of sexual orientation, out into public view. There are some, like Representative Barney Frank, who want to keep the movement for equality hidden and quiet, in the Congressional closet, taking place with paid lobbyists behind closed doors. The extreme antipathy of some members of Congress, such as Louie Gohmert, demonstrates that a soft, meek, deferential approach has not been enough.

There must accountability in Washington D.C. for all the U.S. Representatives who work to deny LGBT equality. Either the Constitution applies to us all, or it applies to none of us. The time for the National Equality March has come.