I would like to respond to the editorial written by Ray Sigler titled “Not bigotry, just facts” in the Saturday April 17, 2010 edition of the Belleville News-Democrat.
As a person who studies gay rights issues I found that most of what Mr. Sigler wrote was pretty standard boilerplate in the anti-gay mindset - that gays aren’t happy, gay equals adultery and of course the ever classic example of the selective biblical literalism, that gays are an abomination like eating shellfish or wearing two different types of cloth at the same time. And the ever popular unbiblical axiom, “love the sinner, hate the sin”. A phrase, mind you, that is mentioned nowhere in the Bible.
But it was the last paragraph that sounded familiar. In it he writes that if we allow gays to serve openly in the military; “It can and will cause problems if a radical homosexual is trolling among those who do not want to practice deviant behavior.” Ignoring the fact that gay people are serving secretly right now in the military. The idea that sexually rapacious homosexuals might force themselves on their unwilling heterosexual comrades in arms rang familiar. It reminded of the racist myth of a century ago of sexually out of control black men who wanted to rape white women.
If Mr. Sigler doesn’t want to be called a bigot maybe he shouldn’t use the language of bigotry. Replacing the word black with the word gay doesn’t make it any less bigoted.
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