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Preeti on the Web |
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Providing Food for Thought |
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Protect Gay Rights |
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As a child, unhabituated to the ways of the world, I independently regarded homosexuals as an innocuous minority group. Soon later, what I read told me to disapprove of them. |
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Refusal to grant equal rights is what’s truly immoral |
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November 2000 |
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Note: I submitted this opinion piece as part of my application for a community columnist position at the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper in Lexington, Ky. I don’t remember exactly when I first learned about the existence of homosexuality. I do know that it was sometime around fifth grade. Perhaps, I saw it alluded to in a movie. I remember recognizing it as being something different, in the sense of being different from the majority. I also remember that despite regarding homosexuality as different, I never viewed it as “bad” or “immoral.” I likened it to all the other human anomalies of which I was aware at the time. Homosexuality was as much a variation on being human as being left-handed was. A couple of years later, upon entering middle school, I began to peruse the editorial section of the Herald-Leader every morning before school. Shockingly, I discovered that some thought homosexuality was immoral and that homosexuals were “bad.” We know that hatred has to be taught. We aren’t born bigoted against particular groups. As a child, unhabituated to the ways of the world, I independently regarded homosexuals as an innocuous minority group. Soon later, what I read told me to disapprove of them. Most of America acknowledges that discrimination against people because of their race or sex, as well as a variety of other characteristics, is wrong. Yet a significant fraction steadfastly clings to the belief that granting homosexuals equal rights is tantamount to supporting immorality. The reality is that denying an “out-group” (homosexuals) equal rights thus makes those in the “in-group” (heterosexuals) a privileged class with special rights unattainable to those relegated to the “out-group.” Currently, no federal law prohibits discrimination against homosexuals in housing, employment, or public accommodations. Similarly, few communities and states have such laws. Thus, this type of discrimination is legal in many cases. For example, last summer, a couple in Henderson, KY filed a lawsuit stating the local Fairness Ordinance, which bars anti-gay housing discrimination, violated their religious liberties. They claimed that renting their property to gays was supportive of a sinful lifestyle and violated their relationship with God (although no religious decree, of which I am aware, makes denial of housing to homosexuals a requisite to having a fulfilling relationship with God). Housing and employment are the basics needed for survival. Housing provides a place to live and employment generates the income for food, clothing and rent. Therefore, denial of housing and employment to homosexuals is not only unsupportive of their lifestyle, but it amounts to refusal of their right to exist. Is selling them groceries at the supermarket or providing them health care in a doctor’s office being supportive of an immoral lifestyle and violating one’s relationship with God, as well? One curious aspect of those discriminating against homosexuals is that they so aggressively single out one (by their definition of morality) sinful lifestyle. What about other religious and sexual transgressions? These discriminators do not as ardently voice opposition to, for example, the hiring of fornicators. Perhaps it’s because out-of-wedlock coitus hits a little too close to home for many Americans. Considering that everyone commits some sort of sin, providing housing or employment to anyone is “supporting and promoting a sinful lifestyle.” The singling out of homosexuals only reveals hatred being disguised by the veil of religion. Those unsupportive of gay rights and equality state that, unlike race and sex, sexual orientation can be changed. This supposedly makes anti-gay discrimination permissible. Despite whether homosexuality is natural or chosen and despite whether it is reversible or permanent, this does not justify denying homosexuals the rights afforded, without question, to heterosexuals. These individuals’ sexual orientations are an integral part of their identity. They should be under no obligation to change in order to gain the basic human rights and status of equality to which all human being are entitled. Some may wonder why I chose to write a column such as this. I feel morally compelled to do so. When a particular group is being subjected to such hatred and bigotry, it is morally wrong not to speak up. Keeping silent only makes one complicit with it. As human beings born in equality, we are all deserving of being treated with respect and dignity. Denial of rights and fair treatment to one group only makes other groups a privileged class with superior status. Forget tolerance. I’m talking about love and acceptance here. As law-abiding citizens, posing no threat to public safety, homosexuals are not any more unworthy of fair treatment than the rest of us are. Refusal to grant equal rights is what’s truly immoral. |