Presentable Homophobia

I feel like I've been stripped of a certain amount of naiveté. I didn't really get how you got from homophobia to something that you can print without looking like a bigot. Then I saw this article, a perfect demonstration.  It opens as a discussion of the APA's position on pedophilia (though not really, notice that they're talking about a second hand report about what some researchers said the APA should do).  What, you may ask, do pedophiles have to do with gay rights? Nothing.  And yet...  At the end of paragraph 4, the author abruptly changes tack, they go from discussing the APA's position on pedophilia, to discussing the removal of homosexuality as a disorder from the DSM.  The article goes on with a survey where option b involves the phrase "perversions like homosexuality and pedophilia," and then go on with this quote

"For them to say that opposition to same-sex marriage is causing psychological distress among lesbians and gays, I mean these guys have it completely backward," LaBarbera contends. "The reality is that self-described homosexuals and lesbians, they do have psychological problems because homosexuality is a perversion."

The important thing to take away from this is that we started out with a discussion of pedophilia (a compulsion to rape small children), equated it with homosexuality (a desire to enter into a relationship with a consenting adult of the same sex), and then quotes a man from Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, who on that site says

Homosexual behavior is always wrong, according to the broad sweep of Judeo-Christian history, so it is tragic to behold the State of Illinois – or any government entity – recognizing immoral same-sex relationships and treating them like marriage.  ....   The anti-Christian Civil Unions law must be repealed. 

This of course is the piece that makes it all come together.  The only reason to equate pedophiles and gays is naked homophobia, the man quoted in this article seems to have it in spades.