Columnist ignorant of reality of gay life

Editor:

I must say that John Keisling's column ("No middle ground in gay rights debate," Oct. 11) appears to be a new low in his attempts to appear informed about contemporary issues. His assertion that there is no middle ground in the gay rights debate and that there are "roughly only five attitudes" regarding the debate leaves me wondering about his future as a professional mathematician. I wonder, since his entire column is based upon a fallacious assumption Ÿ that is, that being gay is a "lifestyle choice."

You see, there is at least one other attitude about homosexuals. That "attitude" is that being gay is largely a matter of biology. I have known and been friends with homosexual men and women my entire life. A member of my family is gay. They did not choose to be discriminated against, to be reviled, to be subjected to humiliation or the kind of hypocritical compassion Keisling exhibits because of a lifestyle choice he implies they made. Rather, they simply found that they were gay, and other than the alternative of living a lie, there was little they could do but accept it and move on with their lives.

It is this attitude which makes me conclude that what consenting adults do in their own home is their business and not mine, regardless of whether they are straight or gay. My "attitude" also leads me to reject such popular but ridiculous notions that gay adults prey on the young in the hopes of recruiting more "innocents" to their lifestyle or that gay people can not control their "urges" in the way heterosexuals do.

Keisling seems to be almost completely uninformed about gay people. (I hope he is better informed about his mathematics specialty Ÿ if not, I predict a rocky final defense of his dissertation.) Keisling's attempt to characterize the attitudes held by homosexual people would be laughable in its ineptness if he did not possess a public platform from which to promulgate his ignorance.

Because he does possess such a platform, I must protest. I do not believe the Wildcat should continue to waste its valuable space on his intellectual drooling. The Wildcat should take a bold step forward and utilize his space for advertisements (perhaps some topless bar or adult theater). Such an action would serve to raise the level of morality and the intellectual honesty of the paper.

Robert J. Frye

Associate Professor, Soil, Water and Environmental Science

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