Question for DU: If flag burning is "protected speech", isn't book burning also protected?

[Bluenorthwest]

31. Sorry, but your point of view is that point of view which allows anti gay laws....

Because 'being who we are' offends some and that is used as their excuse for violence. One person's self expression just might 'insult' some dogmatic others. That 'insult' in no way excuses nor creates the violence committed by criminals.
And free speech is not a philosophical question, it is a Constitutional foundation stone of American culture and law.
The example you give of people gathering and spreading hateful materials sounds to me like a description of any number of churches and mosques in which the clerics rail against gay people and call for war on us. It is constant. Even the Pope engages in such hateful speech. Those who say those things claim it is religious practice, which is protected in the US. You note that you do not see gay people freaking out and committing acts of violence and claiming some preacher or imam 'incited' that violence. Others should be able to cope with opinion as well, no matter how wretched or wrong. Or perhaps those religious congregation should be shut down for 'insulting' others?