I absolutely know what you mean about the first part of this story. Several months ago a very conservative Catholic journalist contacted me to talk about a story I had written and to suggest that we had common cause on one issue and might work together.

They were right a particular matter of common cause, although I was very wary and ended up not collaborating with them. The thing is that one-on-one we really clicked. We ended up laughing and joking quite a bit and getting along personally very well.

But their solid convictions that same-sex partners should be civilly barred from marriage and barred legally from adopting children was something that I couldn't just put aside. That's personal, it's deeply personal.

That's not why I decided not to work with them, but it is why I could never be friends with them, despite the fact that our personalities clicked.