Tim Gill is best known as the Denver-based mega-donor who bankrolled the successful national campaign to legalize same-sex marriage. In June, Gill sat down for an interview with Rolling Stone. He was asked about the future of the gay rights movement. If you had any doubt that Gill and other influential elements in the gay rights movement have come to embody the very traits they once claimed to oppose—intolerance, censoriousness, vengefulness—this is what he had to say: “ ‘We’re going into the hardest states in the country,’ he says. ‘We’re going to punish the wicked.’ ”

The quotation raised enough eyebrows that on July 21, author Andy Kroll, who conducted the interview, fired off a defensive response, claiming the remark was being blown out of proportion by “rightwing media.” Kroll added, “not once in my profile does Gill talk about ‘targeting’ Christians. Not once does Gill so much as hint at singling out Christians or adherents of any other religion.”