I am a christian, and while there is much of the Rand philosophy that I completely disagree with, I do agree with much of her basic premise: let people decide what is best for themselves, not some government bureaucrat.
I guess the ability to only partially agree with Rand is too much nuance for our progressive friends.
Prior to Rand, old school libertarians opposed the government's claim of a right to license occupations, and indeed much of the lefts gain of control over our personal lives comes through that venue.
Support for abortion also came along with Rand.
Rand was a warrior for the free love movement as much as for anything else and her prose is stilted at best.