Column presents inaccurate material about homosexuals
COMMENTARY

I enjoyed Priya Abraham’s editorial on eQ Alliance’s move to not raise the gay rights flag. The article raised some issues, though, that need some illumination.

Do genetics really matter when it comes to homosexuality? A new study comes out almost quarterly about whether homosexual behavior is genetic or not. The year is 2002, and it is irrelevant whether genetics play a role; the fact is that the phenomenon, as some people seem to see it, exists in our world. Homosexuality, in my opinion, is natural because, well, it is natural for me, but even if it was not, do I not have the human right to fall in love and have a relationship with whomever I choose? This argument is similar to wondering why our eyes are a certain color. Does it matter? Why? If I did fall in love and have a relationship with another male, and if we planned to live together, do we not have the legal right to be respectfully treated by law and religion as any other couple who decides to do the same in our country? If the answer is “no,” why?

The statistics regarding domestic violence and number of gay people were misleading, too. First, there is domestic violence across the spectrum of society and it’s a gross disservice to claim that one demographic is worse than another. Domestic violence, like AIDS, is a societal problem, not a gay problem. Do the rate of heterosexual domestic violence and number of heterosexual people determine homosexuals’ rights? If the answer is “yes,” why?

Finally, the one true fact in the article was the acknowledgment of mental health problems in the homosexual community. When a person is treated legally, socially, and sometimes religiously like his self-identity and being are unnatural or morally wrong, one would assume mental health problems would arise, such as suicide, alcoholism or depression. As long as respectable people make bigoted comments (like jokingly referring to lashing homosexuals or setting them on fire), these mental health problems will persist. Why? Anti-homosexual arguments are bigotry and blatant discrimination, whether one hides behind science and religion or not.

—Austin C. Dickson
Senior religion major