Letter: Personal experiences taught need for inclusion

I am an elderly man who, in spite of being raised as a Christian in the 1950s and '60s before gay inclusion in education, turned out to be gay. I didn't choose to be gay, but from the time I learned about sexual relations at age 10, I was attracted only to boys and later to men.

I can relate from personal experience what happens when minorities like the LGBTQ+ community aren't included in education. At age 10 with nothing taught to inform children about homosexuality, I didn't even know what being gay meant. But I soon learned it was considered a sin. I learned to hide my sexual identity to avoid being ridiculed and bullied.

Not able to tell anyone, even my own parents, that I was gay, I grew up thinking I was abnormal. I hated myself for who I was. In high school I had a girlfriend and tried hard to fit in with other heterosexual students. But in private, I was lonely and even contemplated suicide.

It wasn't until college with the help of a gay liberation group that I was able to accept my true sexual identity and love myself. I finally was able to tell family and friends who accepted me as being gay. For the first time since early childhood, I felt like a whole person with my inner spirit in harmony with my identity.

I wouldn't wish for any child to go through some version of ridicule, bullying or homophobic abuse as I did.

When books are banned and education is restricted to exclude references to any minority like members of the LGBTQ+ community, children in those groups come to be viewed as abnormal. Inclusion of proper references to all minorities will help end misunderstanding, bigotry and racism.

Ronald Scherer

Antioch