Letter: Lunch date?

Published 5:00 pm Thursday, July 10, 2008

It’s 2008 and I’m still befuddled by the apparent ignorance of those who still want to marginalize people in our society. Regarding Jean M. Herman’s letter to the editor titled “Repeal the gay agenda” (The Daily Astorian, June 27), Herman states that we need to protect marriage from the gay agenda.

As a gay American by birthright, who had no choice in choosing my sexual orientation, I’m always amazed when election time comes around and my life is used as dice in election politics. Empty politics equal desperate measures – it’s the year of gays, guns and God.

Maybe Herman could explain to me just what the agenda is, because my friends and I are feeling a bit left out in the cold. Perhaps she’s referring to decriminalizing the basic right to love the person of your choice and to honor that love with legal protection.

Maybe she is talking about the need to accept and love our children as they are and help reduce the high rate of suicide and depression among gay teenagers.

Or, is it the right to defend this country in time of war and not hide in a fox hole as some would have it. Don’t ask, don’t tell.

Lastly, perhaps she is referring to loving the same God without condemnation from those who claim “God hates fags,” as a Southern preacher touts, claiming AIDS is “God’s wrath on homosexuals.”

I have found in my life that ignorance is usually the lack of knowledge or exposure. I would enjoy a lunch date with Herman, and let her see that we are all the same.

The threat is not a gay agenda, but the lack of compassion and understanding of those who do not walk in our shoes. I simply want the same rights and benefits that my siblings have. Isn’t that the desire of all loving parents as well? Lunch is on me.

Paul Flues II

Astoria