Alright, let's please not get into any wider arguments about atheists etc.
Re: the topic. As I am sure most of you are aware, I am pro-gay equality (which is increasingly the cultural default in the west now, luckily) and abhor organisations that resist such things.
However, the objections put up for this as a broad attack are valid. This is the Orange Order- this is definitely an extremist example. Heck, the OO won't even let you join if you mare married to a Catholic, let alone being gay. Even for Ireland- a place where religious conservatism thrives- they are considered deeply conservative. They are at least a century out of date in their culture so this is a. no surprise at all and b. not really a reflection on religious approaches in general. This isn't about the Christian Right- you can't draw that sort of parallel. It's about deep seated cultural tensions between Catholics and Protestants, which in most of the world are now meaningless but sadly live on in the minds of small people.
When it comes to dealing with the Orange Order, the questions we ask are "How can we stop their annual marches causing sectarian violence?" and 'let's make sure they are still not directly linked to paramilitary terrorist organisations'. The sort of organisation where, at the start of the century, one of them was caught on interview saying that if Scotland went independent they would consider a terrorist campaign there to protect their protestantism- he later apologised for that, but that's the kind of ground we are dealing with here.
It's a section of society that much work has been done in the last two decades to stop the point where people were being blown up and shot, so that they are still homophobic does seem rather trivial right now. There's a giant religious tension that needs to be worked out of that community.