Headlines should not support gay values

An article announcing the death of Illinois-state politician Rosemary Mulligan was in the Daily Herald's Jan. 1 edition. The article's headline cited her as being a champion of various issues. The headline implicitly told the reader that all of those issues were good and her pursuit of them was positive. The Daily Herald first listed "gay rights" among the issues in that headline.

That leads one to wonder whether she was most recognized for that issue, or whether the newspaper was assigning its own preeminence to it.

Championing homosexual rights is a controversial and dubious distinction; after all, a substantial portion of society does not want homosexuality to be advanced. Many people do not agree that homosexuals should be entitled to special political protection.

What's more, advancing a sexuality of any flavor is indecent: it deteriorates decorum. So, Ms. Mulligan contravened many people's beliefs, and she coarsened society by championing homosexual rights.

Ms. Mulligan also championed women's and minorities' rights-for which she is to be commended. Physicality is innate and should not be used to hinder people's social progress. The manifestation of homosexuality, on the other hand, involves a type of behavior, and like all behaviors, it is one that any human has the choice to engage in or not to engage in.

Furthermore, homosexual behavior is not a value-neutral act. Ms. Mulligan was misguided, then, by championing a less-than-wholesome behavior as if it were meritorious or an involuntary action.

Her political support of people's physical features was right, but her political support of an objectionable behavior was not. Homosexual rights are not unanimously desired.

The Daily Herald should not have regarded Ms. Mulligan's pursuit of them as laudable or as a positive legacy of hers.

Ken Libowicz

Hoffman Estates