Letter on homosexuality reflected bigotry

To the editor:

In his Dec. 22nd letter to the editor [?Homosexuality shouldn?t be condoned?], Ron Stearns argues that homosexuality is simply a matter of bad behavior which ought to be corrected. While his intentions seem pure and gentle, his message is a hurtful and alienating one ? emanating from a fundamental misconception of homosexuality.

Mister Stearns begins by detesting abuse and promoting kindness, a wonderful place to start a constructive memorandum, but immediately thereafter he turns the discussion sour by tossing homosexuality in line with ?greed, pride, laziness, apathy, hate, [and] anger.? Casting homosexuality as ?bad behavior? and a ?problem? to which one ought ?to admit? reflects deeply ingrained bigotry, righteousness, and ignorance ? not a mere point of disagreement as Mister Stearns claims in his closing remark. One cannot expect a respectful, civil discussion between opposing viewpoints when one side speaks so condescendingly. I suspect that many who share Mister Stearns? perspective have never had an open-minded conversation with a homosexual about their sexual orientation, but rather come to such conclusions musing in armchairs.

Homosexuality is not a choice. In all my experience, not once have I met a homosexual who described their sexual orientation as a decision. On that note, I?ve never heard anyone describe their sexual orientation as a decision. The homosexuals I personally know use words such as ?realized? or ?discovered? to characterize their moments of awareness; while others say they always knew. To my knowledge, no one understands exactly how or why some have untraditional sexual orientations, but I think we can confidently exclude whimsy. These are deep waters ? those who claim to see the bottom, I say, are still too close to shore.

In our increasingly secular society, I could imagine that Christians often receive similar disrespect from those who view their faith as whimsical, bad behavior. I implore you to reflect on this before writing such hurtful prose in a public forum again.

? Trevor Hyde, Fairfield