Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Rochell Rogers: Thank you for a great letter

Thank you Rochelle Rogers for a great letter to the editor about Bob Ellis’ ill informed and biased column concerning The Day of Silence. I’m not sure if the Gay Straight Alliance is still in existence. I’ve heard reports that it is. Whether or not it still exists, I know that there are a large number of GLBT students at Stevens.

Mr. Ellis or the family policy council has never been too concerned with factual accuracy or reality for that matter. Their purpose is to exploit prejudice, fear and hatred to gain political and financial advantage. Nothing keeps the collection plates full like a good rant against other people’s horrible sex lives.

Rochelle is right. Not that many people would have known about the Day of Silence if he hadn’t opened his big mouth. But then again his purpose was only to rally the “horrors of other people’s sex” crowd.

I hope a lot of students do take part in the Day of Silence. It will speak loudly to those who need to know they have support in the hallways of the school.

It brings to mind the aftermath of the Anita Bryant anti-gay crusade in Florida many years ago. We were all wearing t-shirts that said “Thank you Anita. You brought us all together.” That seemed to be a major catalyst for the creation of many of the national GLBT organizations. I’ve always said that the more we can keep the Bob Ellises and the Joe Buds of this world talking the better we all look. The best cure for prejudice and intolerance is exposure to the sunlight. The more we allow bigotry to exist unnoticed in the shadows the more deadly it becomes. We need to shout away the clouds, darkness and hate and expose their bigotry to the bright sunshine of truth.

1 comment:

Patti said...

That is truly a great letter