Educating Youths About Gays

What a terrible irony: On the one hand, avowed heterosexual O’Neill rails against the paucity of films like “Aladdin” to take her children, and on the other, bemoans the fact that homosexuals (like Howard Ashman who co-wrote many of the songs in that film) want equal rights with heterosexuals. Perhaps if it were not for homophobes, we would have a cure for AIDS already and Ashman would be alive today to write more “Aladdins” and “Beauty and the Beasts” for children to enjoy. To think of all the undiscovered Ashmans society has lost to this disease gives you an idea about why there may be a lack of such films for the future.

We have no more time nor Ashmans to waste in engaging further in “a national conversation” about basic human rights for millions of Americans. It is the AIDS crisis that has brought gay rights to the forefront of the national agenda, and it will remain there until we either have a cure for AIDS or homosexuals have achieved the basic human rights enjoyed by our fellow Americans (if they happen to be heterosexual). I’m praying for both.

JAMES GILDEN

Santa Paula