Equality Quote by Stephen Bennett

The scare quotes around "gay" do most of the rhetorical heavy lifting here. Bennett isn’t just contesting an argument; he’s contesting the category itself, telegraphing skepticism toward gay identity or gay rights as a legitimate frame. That tiny typographical sneer turns what could be a mundane media gripe into an ideological tell: he wants the reader to hear bias in the very premise of the opposing “piece.”

The line is built to manufacture persecution and credibility at the same time. “They probably realized” is speculative, but it’s dressed up as insider inference, inviting the audience to accept a guess as a revelation. The unnamed “they” blurs accountability (editors? producers? activists?), which makes the claim portable: it can attach to any institution the speaker’s audience already distrusts. Meanwhile, the suggestion that an interview with him would “do more damage” implies he possesses truth powerful enough to puncture propaganda. It’s a self-credentialing move: if gatekeepers won’t platform me, it must be because I’m effective.

Contextually, this reads like a post-hoc explanation for being excluded, or for an interview that fell through. Rather than consider editorial fit or disagreement, Bennett frames it as strategic suppression. That framing matters because it converts a media decision into proof of conspiracy, and it rallies supporters by flattering them: we’re the kind of people whose voices are too dangerous for the mainstream. The sentence is less about the interview than about reinforcing an us-versus-them identity, where “their” agenda is assumed and dissent is treated as sabotage.