BEING GAY ISN'T WRONG
While I believe that Amy wrote a good column and I would not try to speak for her, I thought it was important to point out some of the hypocrisy in the comments from that column:
TOLERANCE AND UNDERSTANDING IS COMMON SENSE
In 1977 the ABC television network introduced us to the television show “Soap” as part of their prime time lineup. The show, which was a parody of daytime dramas, featured comedian Billy Crystal as Jodie Dallas who was one of the first gay characters on television. Right wing and religious groups mounted a letter writing campaign to complain about the character, reportedly generating up to 30,000 pieces of mail before the show even aired.
A few weeks ago one of my fellow guest columnist wrote a column entitled “Being gay isn't wrong”. Amy Gesenhues wrote a sincere and honest story of love for her friends and family that happen to be homosexual. Almost immediately after the column was published online, she began being attacked by those with different opinions. I believe that a dialogue between the opinions columnist that appear on this page and the reader is important but after reading some of the comments they were anything but constructive.
The first comment from “Randy” which was timestamped at 12:33 am said “Being gay is not flowers and sunshine...In fact it's disgusting and goes against nature.” From there they didn't get much better. While some of the comments were supportive and simply thanked her for writing the column, many were judgmental and cited their moral and religious beliefs as their reasoning for speaking out against homosexuality.
While I am not a biblical scholar I do consider myself a fairly religious person. I went to Sunday School as a child, and I am pretty familiar with the teachings of Jesus Christ. If a bible category comes up on Jeopardy I can usually answer four out of the five questions correctly.
Many people invoke the name of Jesus when they use religion as their justification against homosexual behavior. If you ask them sometimes they use the always popular “God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve”. Many times they site Leviticus 20:13 “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination” these two examples are from the Old Testament. Christianity is a religion that is rooted in the New Testament. Jesus spoke often of tolerance and acceptance and I am pretty sure there was something in there about judging others.
It is interesting to point out that over the years we have become more accepting of what exactly is considered a sin. I would venture that adultery is more prevalent in our society than homosexual behavior but it is tolerated much more readily. I think that heterosexual promiscuity is more of an attack on our family and values than homosexual behavior, why has no one come forward to ban that?
The Indiana legislature is working on having a ban on gay marriage added to the Indiana Constitution. Most of the Republican presidential candidates have signed a pledge to amend the US Constitution to include a ban on gay marriage. Why are our leaders spending their time trying to deny citizens rights that others are guaranteed? I believe that there are far more important thing to deal with.
Not only were there many comments posted on the online version of two people took the time to write an actual letter to the editor. I do respect someone who would take the time to actually send a letter to the editor and at least they have a little more conviction than those who post anonymously on the internet. I just feel that they missed the point of Amy's column. Betty Robertson of Jeffersonville stated that “the simple facts are man and woman are made for one reason-to have sex and produce children”. Personally I believe that life is a little more complex than that. She went on to say “...in the way that you are teaching your children, you are almost telling them to be gay.” Teaching children that being gay isn't wrong is not telling them to be gay, just that they will be loved without judgment, whatever they choose.
It took great courage for Amy Gesenhues to write her column. I applaud her for telling the world her opinion that she believed that “Being Gay isn't wrong”. It is that type of unconditional love that will keep us moving forward as a society. Keeping a closed mind and judging others will only hold us back. If more people had the tolerance and understanding that Amy discussed, our world would be a better place.
Matthew Nash can be reached at dmatthewnash@gmail.com
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