Letter was hurtful to gays, lesbians

This is in response to Fence Post letter titled “Consider the public purpose of marriage” by David E. Smith. I found it disheartening that at this charitable and loving time of year when people reach out to one another that Mr. Smith would write an article of hate and religion-based bigotry.

Mr. Smith, would you discriminate against someone if their eye color was different from yours? Of course you wouldn't. Why would you discriminate against someone because God created him differently from you? A person is gay because he or she is born that way. That is the way they were designed by God. A gay person has no control over his or her sexual identity any more than a heterosexual person does.

Do you actually think that a person would choose to be gay to have to endure a lifetime of scrutiny and bias from people like yourself? Why would they want that? When you say that children do best in healthy homes with both a mom and a dad, then why do heterosexual unions produce gay offspring who go on to be wonderful contributors to society? The main reason I write this is that it worries me that maybe a young adult coming to terms with his or her gay, God-given identity would read your article and think less of himself or herself instead of developing an attitude of positivity.

It's the statements like yours that contribute to the increased suicide rate in the gay community. Who's really being selfish, Mr. Smith?

Louis S. Guagent

Arlington Heights