Jeff Jacoby makes an excellent point, one shared by many gay Republicans, gay conservatives, and gay libertarians — I among them (“Of Elton John, Christian bakers — and a basic human right,’’ Opinion, Dec. 28). All gay and lesbian people often are incorrectly lumped into a monolithic LGBT movement by the media, and then are falsely presumed by that same media to support any cause, no matter how bureaucratic and restrictive of other rights, advanced under that banner. When news outlets freely report on an item as being pro- or anti-LGBT, they are actually opining, and every person, gay or straight, should apply their own judgment as to whether the report is actually true.

Many gay Republicans strongly support the very rights Jacoby so aptly explains in his column, most notably in Utah and Texas, and have been working to make sure future nondiscrimination statutes and ordinances, notwithstanding their good intentions, do not take away the fundamental rights of individuals to choose the purposes to which they will put their hands and minds to work.

When I was in college, I led a student group in battling for the First Amendment rights of gay students at Texas A&M University that ended successfully at the steps of the Supreme Court, so I am no apologist for antigay sentiment. But I also believe the First Amendment applies both ways.

Ultimately, one cannot truly defend the rights and freedoms promised by the First Amendment — free speech and freedom of association — if one is unprepared to defend them for others, including one’s ideological opponents.

Marco A. Roberts

Houston