Former State Senator and US Congressional candidate Mark Shepard, who has been one of the most outspoken opponents of both civil unions and marriage equality, has recently declared his deep, abiding love for Vermont Daily Briefing blogger Philip Baruth.

Shepard’s anti-gay rhetoric has been among the most vehement and persistent among opponents of gay rights in Vermont, but had taken a different turn in recent weeks, as Shepard inexplicably turned his public wrath specifically towards Baruth. In letters sent to (and published in) multiple papers across the state, Shepard wrote:

During my 2006 congressional race I had an odd interview with blogger Philip Baruth that was very telling about the length to which supporters of homosexual marriage will go to get their way. During the interview I presented a question that turned the interview completely around, causing Baruth to struggle defending an idea he clearly had not thought through.

Baruth published our entire conversation on his blog along with some very bizarre editorial comments. The interview, which can be found under news at www.ShepardForCongress.org, demonstrates that even as a leading advocate for homosexual marriage he had not begun to consider its ramifications. Baruth’s closing statement and nonsensical editorial remarks further demonstrate that he will accept all sorts of marriage arrangements and slander anyone who thinks differently in the cause of bringing about homosexual marriage.

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Baruth had been caught off guard by the attention that bordered on obsessive, but in light of Shepard’s recent professions of affection, psychologists say it makes perfect sense.

“It comes quite clear if you read Freud’s discussion of paranoia,” an anonymous psychoanalyst commented to GMD. “Freud analyses the process of projection that constitutes the paranoiac’s chief defense and organizes the paranoiac’s delusions of persecution: the basic homosexual desire, “I (a man) love him (a man),” is negated into “I do not love him-I hate him,” which then, as a result of projection, becomes “He hates (persecutes) me,” and from this the paranoiac derives the justification “I do not love him-I hate him-because he persecutes me” (1911c [1910], p. 63). What we have is a system of transformations to defend against homosexuality.”

Baruth has commented that, while flattered, he is already married.