I have been pushing social conservatives to focus on the First Amendment Defense Act because it points to the growing problem: people who are known to oppose gay marriage are increasingly losing their livelihoods. The legislation isn’t perfect, but it combines important and substantive protections with sparking the right conversation: should people lose their jobs because they dissent from the new gay marriage regime? Should religious schools or other church institutions be punished by the removal of nonprofit status if they don’t get with the government’s new program?

Watch this interview with Kelvin Cochran. He is a hero of mine, first for his amazing story of dreaming as a small boy in a poor neighborhood that one day he would be a fireman and save lives—and then making that dream come true.

Secondly, for living up to the Biblical injunction: “Be not afraid.”  He’s paid a great price for that, and shame on those in the Democratic Party who’ve extracted that kind of price from a hero, in his case for the crime of self-publishing a book for his Bible study group that in three or four paragraphs speaks of classic Christian views on sexual purity and what God requires.

Watch the interview:

Presidential candidates: ask yourself, are you willing to be Kelvin Cochran’s champion? If not, I would repeat the question that Sen. Rick Santorum asked a NOM’s gala: “Then why do you want to be president?”

Maggie Gallagher is a senior fellow at American Principles in Action.