Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is never right
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
As we approach the weekend of celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we will undoubtedly hear the inspiring quotes of his famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.
Even now, more than five decades later, the word resonate — I get a little chill every time I hear them, and a renewed hope that we can live in a country where we are judged by who we are as people, not by a label.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!” Dr. King said.
So I wonder what Dr. King might make of comments by Coatesville Area School District Board of Education member Laurie Knecht this week that, while it’s bad to discriminate against folks for their ethnicity, religion or color, the school district doesn’t really need to worry about preventing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
“Race, sex, religion are just things that happen. Sexual preference is a behavior,” said Knecht, during Tuesday’s meeting, according to our Kyle Carrozza. “I think there’s a lot of pressure to be politically correct.”
Let’s set aside the entirely too rich irony that these comments came on the night that the state NAACP and Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission signed off on a plan to recover from the Richard Como texting scandal — the ex superintendent who texted various racial and ethnic slurs about students and staff — and the fact that these comments were made at the final board meeting prior to Dr. King’s birthday and a weekend of celebrations of his legacy of equality and justice or that Chester County’s own Bayard Rustin, a close associate of Dr. King’s, was a proud gay man.
If these comments were made in the middle of July, they’d be no less ignorant and worthy of derision.
By most estimates, somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of of the population identifies as homosexual. The tired argument — largely disproved by science — that it is a choice, rather than a hardwired function only still has relevance in certain right-wing echo chambers, where science and fact are routinely dismissed as left-wing propaganda.
That means that somewhere between 350 and 700 Coatesville Area School District students, dozens of staffers and thousands of residents of the school district were just informed by a school board member that they are inferior people. That they are wrong. That they should be shamed for who they are and it is all right for others to treat them as less than a human being.
That’s a pile a horse manure.
The only one who should be shamed — not because of creed, race or religion, but a lack in the content of her character — is Knecht.
This isn’t about “political correctness” but about human decency and using an alleged “ideology” to encourage hate against one group or another. It is deplorable, despicable and at the end of the day, unacceptable.
We call on the greater Coatesville community to step up and say “no” to those who would embrace hate and ignorance.
The 5-10% of the population being gay assertion also shows either a lack of research or deliberately trying to mislead your readers. A quick google search reveals that 1.6 to 1.7% of Americans who identify themselves as gay or lesbian.
Or, in fact could be closer to the truth than your claims. It’s point of argument — ranging from the Kinsey claim of 10%, with a staggering 37% having claimed some homosexual activity, to your claims of 1.5%, which have been as disputed as the Kinsey numbers.
Also, the numbers represent an “underreport” bias in polling. In other words, people tend to answer in less than an honest manner because of cultural bias shame. So, I stand by my suggestion that somewhere between 5 and 10% of the population is gay or bisexual.
More importantly, why should it matter? Are you supporting bias against a group or population because you happen to think they’re somehow less deserving of equal rights? Whether it is one student, one teacher or half of them, sanctioning discrimination is wrong, which is my original point.
The Times is way off base on this one. Dr. King felt that homosexuality was a culturally acquired problem that had a solution. His advise to a young man concerned with his homosexual feelings was to see a good psychiatrist. Maybe some homework would be in order before you spout off your PC views in criticism of someone with more traditional ones that are identical to the great civil rights activist. See: http://townhall.com/columnists/mattbarber/2014/01/26/mlk-homosexuality-a-problem-with-a-solution-n1785096/page/full