Same Sex Marriage debate outside the blogshpere

Taking a wee break from the Grewal shenanigans for a minute, I'd like to share a letter I have sent off to one of our local fish-wrap weeklies, Nepean This Week. This paper is very Conservative - and yes I mean the big 'C'. This paper might as well be the propaganda wing of the local Conservative Riding Association.

Any way, this letter is a response to a letter from one Tim Carter, and can be found inside the current issue (sorry PDF). This angry rant of his, in response to an earlier letter of mine, which was a response to a hate-filled, fundamentalist-Christian rant against Same Sex Marriage and homosexuality in general.

Here is my letter in response:

"Mr. Carter,

I don't expect you or anyone else to ignore any facts. I do, however, expect you to learn what the facts are. Everything in your latest angry diatribe is false. Clearly you are being spoon-fed "facts" from places like Focus on the Family, NARTH and other fundamentalist, right-wing sources. Let me present the real facts, as gleaned from sources such as the American Psychiatric Association, The University of Western Ontario, The University of Lethbridge, John Hopkins Medical School, DeGroote School of Medicine at MacMaster University, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the US National Academy of Sciences, to name a few.

Homosexuality has been observed, in the wild, in as many as 450 species of animals. These include dolphins, bears, fruit flies,whales, penguins, salmon, and in two other primate species - Orangutans in Sumatra and Japanese Macaques. These researchers weren't looking for this behaviour, they found it while conducting other research. It was a surprise to them and was confirmed by others in the field of biology and zoology.

I could find no research that confirms you assertion that gays are more likely to be involved in "abuse." And while you are quick to point out that gay men are at a higher risk of HIV and AIDS, you seem to miss the fact that the group that is at the lowest risk or ANY demographic are lesbians. Tell me again how being gay is the cause and reason for AIDS? By your logic, we should not allow natives in Saskatchewan to marry, since, statically, they are more likely to be in abusive relationships and to re-commit crimes. Or we should not allow blacks from Africa to marry because they are one thousand times more likely to spread AIDS than white North Americans.

That HIV and AIDS are more spread by high-risk activities such as promiscuity is not in question. But if you really wish to prevent the spread, allowing gays and lesbians to enter into legally recognized, long-term , monogamous relationships will prevent the spread. Same Sex Marriage is actually a solution to the spread of AIDS and HIV, not an enabler of it.

I don't expect to change your hate-filled mind about homosexuality being a natural condition. I will not sit by while you spread false and misleading information about gays and lesbians, intended to generate hate toward and identifiable group.

Let me point out something you may have missed, Mr. Carter. Homosexuals have been allowed to adopt children for more than a decade in Ontario. Studies have shown that gays and lesbians are as good and sometimes better parents than straight parents in raising kids. And no one is being "raised gay". You can no more raise someone and teach them to be gay than you can teach someone to be straight - either they are or they are not. Our schools will simply teach children to respect other people - you know, that old "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" idea - and not "how to be gay". Your assertions are pure paranoia and pathological fear. Ontario has had legal gay marriage for 2 years and we haven't descended into chaos. Nothing has happened.

Oh, and let me point out one more thing, again, because you clearly missed it the first time. You go on though out your letter with accusatory "you want us to..." and "only your own" etc, implying I take the position I do because I am gay (and thus part of the vast "Gay Conspiracy"). As I stated in my first letter, I am straight, married and a father. I form my opinions based on researched facts, not on fear, hatred and dogma. If you can show real evidence to back up your claims, I would change my opinion. But you haven't. You have only shown to me the underlying, anti-gay bigotry that drives your opposition to gay marriage. You letter has been written a thousand times in the past, only then the word "gay" was replaced by the words "Jew", "Black" or "Catholic." Same hatred, different day."

This is the kind of ground-level hatred I have to deal with on a daily basis, and I'm not even gay. I used to wonder how the Germans could get sucked in to supporting genocide back in WWII. Not anymore.

June 16th cannot come fast enough.

Ok. You may now resume Grewal speculation...