The United Kingdom’s Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act (2013) was framed by the Government as an equality measure and, as such, those who opposed the legislation were likely to be sensitive to possible accusations of prejudice. This paper explores resistance to marriage equality within the British press and examines how homophobia denials were made. Adversaries of same-sex marriage dealt with commonsense notions of ‘homophobes’, either by aligning their views with categories of persons not typically considered homophobic or by distancing their views from a homophobic other. Adversaries also provided a counter-accusation that it was liberal supporters of same-sex marriage who were biased. Parallels are drawn with discursive literature on racist discourse and it seems that despite social scientists’ efforts to extend the concept of antigay prejudice, homophobia is commonly referred to in terms of irrational prejudiced individuals.