Michael C., one of the major reasons for having an art fair is to attract galleries from outside the city. You may see the fair adding a few more Houston galleries to the final list, but the goal was always to have the overwhelming majority of galleries coming from elsewhere. I expect the same would be true of Texas Contemporary.

Then by all means, show up holding signs criticizing the speakers and the charity for hosting them. Protest is essential in a free society, but it needs to be done respectfully. Screaming at attendees to "go home," telling them they don't belong in a country where they absolutely do belong, accusing them of beating their women and being pedophiles -- and not even tempering your language when you see that some of the guests are small children -- none of that qualifies as respectful protest. It's mob behavior, and it's ugly.

You don't even know how many of the guests agreed with the views of the speakers, who at any rate weren't likely to delve into Israel and Palestine too deeply at a function raising money for a woman's shelter and homeless services. Here in Houston, Open Door Mission invites some pretty polarizing political figures to give keynotes at its galas. This year they're having Newt Gingrich; last year it was Mike Huckabee, who routinely compares gay marriage to incest, drug abuse, slavery and whatever it is that the cat drags in. It's not a stretch to imagine that many of the people who went to the gala strongly disagree with those views and maybe even find the man repugnant but went to support the cause, the chairs, etc.

I don't remember hearing that gays picketed the gala, but if they had, there would have been a right way and a wrong way to do it. The right way would have been to hold up signs criticizing Huckabee and the charity for inviting him. The wrong way would be to attack all the guests -- or going even further, all Christians -- as evil, bigoted and trying to turn America into a theocracy because of the anti-gay views of the speaker.

What we saw on that video went way beyond protesting the speakers.