So, a thread calling DUers celebrating equal marriage "arrogant" and warning

that this victory for gay rights is going to cost us elections is still up, despite numerous alerts. But a week or so ago a thread I posted noting that gay folks vote Democratic 70-80% of the time was locked with a locking message calling it hate speech.

Obvious hate speech directed at a disenfranchised minority on one hand, not locked. A light-hearted thread celebrating the fact that gay folks are one of the Democratic Party's strongest base on the other hand, locked as hate speech.

Do you see why gay folks on DU are so angry?

It took that long to lock because the mods could not agree that it was necessarily a rule violation. First, it didn't call DUers arrogant, it requested that they not be arrogant going forward. Second, the poster's stated reason for this request was that the victory in New York is not the be-all-end-all of the fight for equal rights. Quote: "I am very sure you are all aware that the Teabungles will take this into account and campaign heavily to remove those who voted for this. We must, to the strongest, prepare for this assault. Vigilance is key. Never underestimate them. Let's not repeat what happened in midterm or NY will become another MI, OH, or WI." In other words, they were not saying that people should sit down and shut up or it will cost us elections, they were saying that people should continue to work hard for equal rights and remain vigilant against the RW. That opinion is not a rule violation.

Neverthless, the thread was eventually locked because the use of the word "arrogant" and the request that people not celebrate did indeed prove to be inflammatory. Furthermore, the member has since been banned because after looking into the situation more closely we discovered that they had been banned a few times previously.

So there you have it, another nuanced situation in which the moderators were forced to make a difficult call.

The point of my question is to ask about the obvious double standard.