They stood for their principles, and accepted what resulted, good for them.
Your diatribes are always so entertaining because of the venom and ignorance.
I always look forward to them, the farcical interlude is like watching Laurel and Hardy.
YOU, may not agree with the Constitutionally guaranteed right of the freedom of religious conscience, but really, who cares about what you or I find acceptable ?
You might mitigate your ignorance a bit by actually learning what the NT says about marriage and homosexuals.
Then, you could at least squirt your venom a little more accurately.
Perhaps allow me to try and be a little more accurate. Definitions: truth is that which is true, beliefs are that which we accept to be true, but could well be mistaken, and faith is what we bind ourselves to, right or wrong.
Religious conscience, as you put it, suggests that there are things that you can accept as wrong, presumably for yourself, and then with wide brush paint all over everybody else. It does not appear to matter very much whether this is hurtful to anyone else, as long as it make the believer feel good about themselves. I wonder, however, if for the supposed "Christian," this is how the Jesus I read about in the Bible would feel. And I think this is a key point.
I grew up gay in the sixties, a very uncomfortable time. Police could beat you up, and who were you going to go to to make a complaint? Just knowing that everybody around you was allowed to hate you for what you could not help being was immensely hurtful. But yes, that is what Christians, pretending to be emulating the namesake of their religion, did...all the time.
And all in the name of what you cite as "the NT says about marriage and homosexuals." No doubt, the NT knew everything about everything that was and could ever be, though unfortunately it neglected to mention most of it, like brushing your teeth for health.
In Canada, the United Church of Canada, one of our largest denominations, has accepted homosexuals and same sex marriage because they made the effort to look at what is now known (not what was known 2000 years ago) about human nature, and tried to fit that understanding within the context of the Bible. And that required them to think, rather than merely believe, knowing that belief can be wrong.
I will be honest with you, and say that I sincerely believe that my humanist ideals are much more closely representative of what the Christ of the NT seems to have taught in the Gospels (forgetting much of what Paul, and worse, false Paul texts, had to say) than many who call themselves Christians. I at least do know how to love without judging, and I will serve people who don't believe what I believe.
Because, you know, I could be wrong...