Republican presidential candidates are encountering a big surprise in New Hampshire. The old school Republican politicians who populate the GOP presidential field have become accustomed to using homosexual Americans as an easy target, a group that they can bash to great applause from the Republican base and weak resistance from Democrats.

Over the last few years, however, American culture has had an important shift. Attacks against homosexuals aren’t so popular anymore. It’s not that the number of homosexual Americans has changed. What’s changed is that most heterosexual Americans are not willing to stand by silently and do nothing while their homosexual neighbors are used as punching bags by opportunistic politicians.

The majority of Americans now support full legal equality for gays, lesbians, transexuals and bisexuals. That majority includes large numbers of Republican voters.

So it was that when Rick Santorum brought out his old attacks against homosexuals this week, his audience of New Hampshire Republicans decided that they weren’t going to tolerate Santorum’s intolerance. The Republican crowd booed at Santorum as he repeated his anti-equality slurs.

Of course, the problem isn’t just with Rick Santorum. There isn’t a single top tier Republican presidential candidate who accepts the right of homosexual Americans to equality under the law.

To confront the Republican candidates’ homophobic bigotry, there will be a protest march tomorrow in Manchester, New Hampshire. The march, called the Pride Walk, will begin at 12:00 Noon in Veteran’s Park, moving toward Victory Park.

The march’s organizers explain, “The PRIDE WALK is a response and a reaction to the negative and hateful campaigning some of our Presidential candidates have demonstrated. Attacks against the GLBTQ community is a form of bullying that is unacceptable in our Free state. We are standing up for NH Families and the right for equality in marriage to remain law.”