People's right to free speech should be defended, for instance no more Galileo being silenced by the Church because empirical evidence fractured their fragile beliefs.
But at the same time, people can't just say _anything_. If society was still allowed to be legally publicly homophobic, I'd still be told to my face by various people that I'm a: monster, pedophile, going to hell, sissy and all manner of cruel insults & jokes just because I'm gay. That wears someone down, after a while.
People's right to free speech should be defended, for instance no more Galileo being silenced by the Church because empirical evidence fractured their fragile beliefs.
But at the same time, people can't just say _anything_. If society was still allowed to be legally publicly homophobic, I'd still be told to my face by various people that I'm a: monster, pedophile, going to hell, sissy and all manner of cruel insults & jokes just because I'm gay. That wears someone down, after a while.