Backers of Deputy’s View of Gays, Columnist’s View of Deputy

Dana Parsons’ column of Jan. 8 finally prompted us to write a long overdue letter. In this hotbed of Republican conservatism that people such as (Agustin Alvarez) so lovingly think of as home to family values, we should not be too surprised that once in a while their guard slips and the bigotry and hatred show through. Our thanks to Parsons for exposing them as the danger they are to everything that reasonable men and women stand for.

As life partners for 19 years, and as an openly gay couple, we have experienced it all before. As we fought the Irvine battle to keep gays and lesbians a protected class in the Irvine Human Rights Ordinance, the likes of Mr. Alvarez were quite vocal with their distorted stereotypical portraits of who “homosexuals” are. Although we lost that battle, people of humaneness and understanding such as Parsons will help over time to win the larger struggle to educate the community and to demystify the concept of gay and lesbian.

JOSEPH J. BUCUZZO, JAMES L. BOONE, Irvine