analogy of the day: stem-cell research and gay hate

In a report detailing the recent political shifts occurring within the "liberal republican" (say what?) community of Bellevue, Washington, an article in today's New York Times notes that, "for many engineers and their ilk, restriction of stem cell research is what gay marriage is to conservative Christians, a phenomenon so counter to their basic values that they cannot vote for any candidate who supports it."

Initially ignoring the blatant ridiculousness of the analogy -- me and my partner are to evangelicals as embryonic stem cell research restrictions are to engineers... shouldn't the media stop allowing gay-hate to pass as a "Christian value"? I thought basic "Christian" values involved compassion and tolerance and the like... and since when was opposition to gay marriage a "basic value" of Christianity? I missed that Sunday school class...

I guess the most interesting aspect of this little sentence is that it equates the "value" of wanting to help those with diseases find cures through advanced research with the "value" of denying homosexuals legal rights... can we agree that this is a big fat stretch?