FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA - In a letter Monday, "Facts to add about homosexuals," the letter writer lashes out at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel for advocating that Broward County schools openly discuss the issue of homosexuality.In her slanted effort at being "factual" about gays and lesbians, she says these discussions would be dangerous because gay youths are more often associated with school problems, substance abuse and suicide.
Though I find her information about as reliable as that of the Bush administration, even if it were true, doesn't she realize that gay youth might become depressed and suicidal just from being bombarded with messages as degrading as her own?
And in her disparaging statement that a gay or lesbian union "lasts 1.5 years," I again wonder where she pulled up those figures. My lesbian sister and her partner have been together 25 years and are married -- yes, married. Last time I checked, a full 50 percent of heterosexual marriages end in divorce in the U.S.
Her information on HIV is incredibly off as well, as worldwide, heterosexual sex is the No. 1 transmission method for HIV. According to the National Institutes of Health, in the U.S., gay white males account for 15 percent of new cases and heterosexual women are the fastest growing segment of new cases with women of color accounting for 72 percent of those cases.
Fort Lauderdale, like much of the world, is diverse in every way: race, religion, sexual orientation, hair color. And it is going to stay that way. Broward County has no use for a 21st century Anita Bryant. Those awful years are, thankfully, behind us.
From Sun-Sentine
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