A Disappointing Attempt to Engage in a Respectful Difference of Opinion

Minnesota State Capitol
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I generally try to avoid calling people out by name, but when a public official makes his positions well-known, it seems within reason for me to do so.

At the beginning of February, Dan Hall, the state senator from the Burnsville – Lakeville – Savage area, about thirty miles south of where I live, started following me on Twitter.  This seemed very strange to me, but after corresponding with him, I followed him back.  The topic of same-sex marriage did not come up in our communications at that time for a variety of reasons, primarily because it didn’t even occur to me at the time.  You can only imagine my surprise when I saw him in the news a few weeks later.  

Senator Hall is referenced in this article  http://minnesota.publicradio.org/.... as follows:

The bill includes a specific exemption based on religious beliefs.  But other Republicans said they're still concerned about a potential infringement on their religious liberty.  State Sen. Dan Hall, an ordained minister, said he doesn't want to be forced one day to perform a marriage that he objects to.

"I personally will go to jail before I ever perform a marriage to a homosexual," said Hall, R-Burnsville.

In my entry dated March 18, I shared some of my thoughts regarding same-sex marriage, expressing both love and support for my friends and family members in the LGBT community.  Whenever I publish a blog entry, I send a Tweet, and the one in this instance read:

Love is love. 

matthewmorsecodified.blogspot.com/2013/03/my-thoughts-on-same-sex-marriage.html 

@SenatorDanHall @ScottDibble @ChrisWarcraft #MarriageEquality #StraightAlly

Note that Scott Dibble is the Senate sponsor of the bill that would allow same-sex marriage in the state of Minnesota, and “Chris Warcraft” is Chris Kluwe, the punter for the Minnesota Vikings, who has been very vocal in his support of the issue. 

Late that day, Senator Hall responded:

@MatthewMorse6 @ScottDibble @ChrisWarcraft Not for me.  I love my wife different than my niece.  There are many different kinds of love.

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Although I interpreted the response as immaterial, argumentative,   ridiculous, and insulting to my intelligence, I am loath to engage in an online argument with anyone, much less a politician.  It also raised some questions, which I never posed directly to Senator Hall:  Did you read my blog entry, or did you just reply to my use of the expression "Love is love"? Did you read about the people who are in loving relationships? Did you read about my friends and family? Do you understand how your "Christian" beliefs are hurting others?

I keep very close track of the people with whom I am connected on all of my social media accounts, so it was easy to notice when the counts for both my "Following" and my "Followers" were down by one on Tuesday.  Senator Hall unfollowed and blocked me.  It was never my belief that his mind would change, but the fact that we could not have a respectful disagreement strongly disappointed me.

I sent him one last Tweet:

@SenatorDanHall You unfollowed me and arranged it so that I no longer follow you? Because I have a lesbian cousin? I don't understand.

Senator Hall has to date not responded to me.

Have you ever been involved in a disagreement with a politician? How did you handle it? Please share your comments below.