Debate Over Gay Pride Event, Irvine Ordinance

Our freedom of speech, as is commonly observed, does not permit one to cry out “fire” in a crowded theater--a justifiable case of the limitations surrounding an individual’s freedom in relation with that of society’s. And I propose that it is no different in the case of homosexuality being allowed to openly parade itself as a normal, alternative life style.

What goes on between two consenting adults in public must take into account the freedoms of those who are constantly overlooked in the scheme of these particular individual’s “rights.” These are of the children. These impressionable saplings of the future have enough of a burden within the bounds of a normal, heterosexual society; the opposite sex is terrifying as it is without the added confusion of lustful notions among the same.

I am not suggesting that the practice of homosexuality be outlawed, or that by any means it will one day disappear. However, I am suggesting that homosexuality be categorized for what it is--a sexual perversion, and nothing more. For if they are granted the status of a people whose time of coming out from the closet has come, then what “alternative” life style will come out of the closet next? Bestiality? Necrophilia? The comparison may seem outrageous now to some, but who would have seriously considered 20 years ago that men who had sex with men would adamantly demand so many positions on the police force or so many teaching jobs in our schools? And, even more frightening, begin adopting recognition and social sympathy in the process.

It is up to all concerned heterosexuals to voice their opposition to the dangerously momentous surge of homosexual visibility in our communities. It is only by keeping sexual perversities in the closet that our children have a chance at leading the kind of lives that we intend for them. There are enough negative influences bombarding our families today without worrying about little Jimmy “experimenting” with the neighbor’s boy because he saw two men kissing in the park. In order for us to grow as a country, both morally or otherwise, we must keep these “alternative” life styles out of the mainstream of society, to be discovered if they must by mature and responsible adults, for only then can they truly be consenting.

CORY SHEPPARD

Costa Mesa