To the Readers' Forum:
Regarding verbal attacks on the gay community, recently posted "Letters to the Editor" have not only been disheartening to see such discrimination still occurring but also enraging to hear some of the ways that people in the Jamestown area talk about the gay community.
The attacks have come in several forms, ranging from people attempting to "pray the gay away" by quoting scripture and preaching "the word of god" to people on The Post-Journal's website using belittling terms to refer to gays. The publications of these attacks in the paper are simply outrageous that in 2012 someone can still preach such hatred against another human being.
Commonly stated arguments on The Post-Journal's website have been "If they can not produce it is not natural." By that same logic, a man or woman who is sterile should not be allowed to marry anyone because they can not have children. Another statement that has gotten to me is that advocating for gay rights brings the liberals out of the woodwork; it is not liberals who are advocates for gay rights, it is the caring, educated, and non-hate mongering people. It has nothing to do with standing behind your party lines.
Contrary to popular belief, a homosexual does not want to get into your pants nor do they want to encroach on the rights of others, as others do to them. All they ask for is the rights to marry the person that they love and reap the benefits of marriage that so many heterosexual couples take for granted.
All of these letters have stemmed from a page one aricle that quoted City Council President Greg Rabb as saying "Easy, We need to market ourselves as a same-sex marriage destination." Which is a terrible misrepresentation of the situation. Mr. Rabb offered a simple, no-cost, solution to build tourism and business development in the Jamestown area.
The ensuing attacks against him for his statement have been nearly as outlandish as the attacks against the gay community. Anyone who attacks the man personally has never met him. Mr. Rabb is an upstanding member of his community, an excellent professor, a very committed member of the long list of organizations he belongs to, and a very outspoken advocate of gay rights.
Benjamin Steubing
Falconer