Sometimes we forget that not all relations, not all behaviour in the past, were controlled and restrained by law, or needed to be. When vulnerable behaviour is protected by law, the role of personal decency starts to seem disposable. You’ve got the laws you asked for – why do you want people to be nice as well? Or, even worse – we’re being nice to you because the law tells us to be. That’s good enough, isn’t it? This may be the issue with the acceptability, or otherwise, of gay people in society. The legal protections are all pretty much in place, and the principle of equality enshrined. When same-sex marriages start taking place next March, we can work wherever we choose; hoteliers may not turn us away; we must be treated equally by the providers of goods and services. We must not be abused in the street on the grounds of our sexuality. You must be nice to us. It’s the law. The grounds are set for a small but emphatic backlash. It’s easy to point to international examples, where individual jurisdictions have decided they want nothing to do with the general spread of liberalising legislation, and are going…