(CNN) -- One backward notion that has been used to differentiate the 1960s Civil Rights movement from today's struggle for LGBT equality in the United States is the idea that gay people are somehow "invisible" and can hide who they are. This, in theory, makes them immune to discrimination. "How do you know who to discriminate against ...?" Iowa Rep. Steve King asked in an interview that was rebroadcast this week by Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert. I wish that, too, was satire, but King went on in the March 3 interview with a TV station in Des Moines to explain that characteristics that aren't "specifically protected in the Constitution" must be "immutable," meaning "a characteristic that can be independently verified and can't be willfully changed."
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Mississippi is the latest state to consider a "gay Jim Crow" law
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Sutter: Ignorance and fear promote that sort of legislation
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He says proponents would rather think of gay people as invisible
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It shows up in comments like those from @placeholder, in comments from friends and family, and, most crucially, in America's broken legal protections for LGBT people.
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That's true even in @placeholder, where one of these "religious freedom" bills is currently being debated and where activists have been staging demonstrations.
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Gay people -- verified or not -- have increasingly stepped out into the public spotlight in @placeholder to tell their stories.