Discrimination Against Gays

* In response to “Biblical Roots of Right and Wrong,” by Dennis Prager, Commentary, July 16:

As the rabbi who has long served the lesbian and gay community in Los Angeles, and as a lesbian, I take particular exception to the conclusions of Prager. He would use sacred Scripture as a platform to bolster his hatred of gay men and lesbians and prevent them from partaking in the fullness of American society and culture. He would claim some kind of moral heterosexist superiority as the sound basis for this discrimination. Wrongly, Prager would have us believe that the Torah would and should remain unchallenged even when it promulgates unjust laws. Prager must also believe that women are second-class citizens in the same category as minors and slaves, with few inheritance rights. This is the way the Bible speaks about women.

I disagree. Just as the prophets Isaiah and Amos challenged the status quo, so too gay and lesbian activists force each of us to examine the present violation of civil rights that my community experiences. Gay men and lesbians simply want what all Americans want: to participate freely in American society, to contribute, to work and live and love in security and privacy.

Prager would spread lies about my community. There is no more a propensity toward promiscuity in the gay and lesbian community than in the heterosexual community. Indeed, with increasing frequency lesbians and gay men are having ceremonies of commitment. I officiate at them regularly.

Gay men and lesbians are indeed a minority within our culture. We cut across every ethnic and skin color line. Gay and lesbian life is about whom we love and build our lives with. We only know that we are different from heterosexuals by whom we love. The real challenge for American society is to see that hatemongers who use the Bible for cover cannot love and hate with the same hand.

RABBI DENISE L. EGER

West Hollywood

* Robert Dawidoff errs in arguing that homosexuals should receive “equality before the law” based on “who and what” they are (Commentary, July 16). Prager clarified the meaning of who they are in an opposing column: “Homosexuals have been discriminated against for what they do.”

What homosexuals are is defined by what they do, sexual behavior that falls outside societal norms. Wrongful discrimination against homosexuals, as Prager points out, is not equivalent to wrongful discrimination against blacks.

Any person who opposes homosexual goals (e.g., sanctioning homosexual marriages, permitting homosexuals to serve in the military) is regarded by homosexuals as “homophobic,” a nonexistent phobia--and a spurious term used to challenge societal norms and to discriminate against society’s majority.

Homosexuals, although sometimes wrongfully persecuted for their behavior, do not qualify for inclusion as a minority group that should receive special legal protection. To do so would mean that any group whose behavior deviates from societal norms is entitled to special protection under the law. All Americans are entitled to equality before the law because of who they are--but not because of what they do.

HUGH W. GLENN

Irvine