For one, I would like to see progressives be as forceful and adamant about fighting the homophobia that exists within Islam as they are about fighting it in Christianity. It is undeniable that both Christianity and Islam have been major promoters and perpetrators of human rights abuses of LGBT people throughout history and I believe that progressives confronting, not excusing, the homophobic beliefs intrinsic in the Christian religion has gone a long way towards acceptance of homosexuality among Christians in the West. That's not to say there still aren't issues there, but the progress that has been made in such a short amount of time in this area is staggering.

As a gay man who is generally left leaning, I was hoping that one positive thing that could come out of the tragedy in Orlando would be to start a conversation about homophobia in Islam and how we can confront it. Instead, I've seen more criticism about the NRA, Republicans and Christians among the left than I have about Islam despite the shooter not being a member of the NRA, not a registered Republican, and not a Christian.

It generally does seem like any criticism of Islam is highly discouraged on the left, while bashing Christianity for its homophobic teachings seems much more welcome. I understand that Muslims in America face discrimination and bigotry and we need to take more action to fight that, but that doesn't mean we should be blind to the problematic nature of many of their teachings.

It's a shame when conservatives are more willing to confront homophobia in something than liberals are. I know they're only doing it for political reasons, but I'm not convinced that the silence from the Left on this issue isn't also for political reasons.