That quote makes him liberal? So conservatives don't condemn violence against homosexuals? Not even physical violence?
Conservatives condemn violence against homosexuals when the violence gets close to home. I related a homophobic attack on me to two very different conservatives. One, an arch-conservative on economics (he believed that government should represent wealth if it is to foster the creation of wealth) saw the attack as a fundamental attack on human decency -- a threat of a violent attack, and something that would have been very wrong if I were homosexual.
One, a religious conservative, said that gays need to be straightened out so that they not perform amoral attacks -- but that a baseball bat was never going to convince anyone of the virtue of heterosexuality. Religious faith would be far more effective.