'Love your neighbor as you would love yourself'.

• Position: Coulter

A law was recently passed in Indiana that allows business people to discriminate against gay and transgender people, or against anyone who is deemed to be out of step with the vendors' "truly held'' religious beliefs. This law is called "The Religious Freedom Restoration Act'' to disguise the discrimination at the heart of the law in a cloak of religious freedom.

To accentuate the ruse that this is really about religious freedom, the governor of Indiana surrounded himself with people in religious garb when he signed the law. Make no mistake, the law is about discrimination and it is targeted at the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) community. Religion is being used as an excuse to make the discrimination seem acceptable.

But, since religious leaders were present at the signing, it's worth asking why some otherwise religious people are so afraid of gay and transgender people that they want the right to legally discriminate against them?

I have a theory. You see, some people desperately want to believe that sexual orientation is a choice, and that belief is where all of the problems come from.

The idea that a person can choose his or her sexual orientation is crucial because it helps to justify the discrimination against that person. If it were a choice, then LBGT people would theoretically be able to convince other people to adopt a different sexual orientation (in the way that many religious people work to convince other people to join their religion). I have, over the years, heard many people put forth the theory that because gay people cannot procreate, they need to recruit new people to perpetuate the lifestyle. Heck, I said the same thing when I was young and ignorant and repeated things I had heard without thinking them through.

That's how I know where the fear comes from -- ignorant people are afraid that their children will be recruited to change their sexual orientation.

Because being gay is considered by some to be a sin, it theoretically puts a person's soul at risk (again, as a sin it is considered a conscious choice made by the individual -- it would be difficult to classify sexual orientation as a sin if it wasn't believed to be a choice). Therefore, some people likely fear that their LGBT neighbors are dangerous.

That is, of course, complete and utter hogwash.

Granted, the holier-than-thou crowd might split hairs and say being gay is one thing and acting on that orientation is what makes it a "sin.'' So, if you find...