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Letters to the Editor

Column attacked gays using skewed statistics

After reading Ms. Abraham’s editorial I see how far lesbian, bisexual and gay students must go to gain acceptance at TCU. Coming Out Week serves to give lesbian, bi and gay people a chance to speak about themselves, which they have been denied. While Ms. Abraham says they are trying to stifle debate, articles like this, with false statistics and reinforced stereotypes, and actions like the stealing of the eQ Alliance banner that occurred Wednesday today, are the very things meant to silence.

Ms. Abraham cites sights statistics from groups like the Family Research Council (FRC) who are dedicated to destroying lesbian, bisexual and gay people and are beyond biased. She speaks of the promiscuity of gay people without mentioning that of heterosexuals, and speaks of AIDS without mentioning that the vast majority of people with AIDS are straight.

However, she is not completely incorrect. It is true that lesbian, bisexual and gay people suffer from mental health problems, but have you ever wondered why, Ms. Abraham? If you were gay, and you had to read in the newspaper about how horrible you were, wouldn’t you have self-esteem problems?

What is sad is that people who point to the mental health problems among lesbian, bisexual and gay people have no desire to resolve them. Instead, they blame lesbian, bisexual and gay people for the world’s problems, wait until they slip into depression resulting in self-destruction and then celebrate it as justification for their prejudice. The column was not all bad, since you said that lesbian, bisexual and gay people shouldn’t “be rounded up, given 40 lashes, and set on fire.” That makes you more compassionate than most.

— Chris Stillwell
Brite Divinity School