Young Man Displays Courage Under Fire

As a native of Wisconsin, I empathize with Jamie Nabozny (“A Stand for Human Worth,” Feb. 26) and his courage to finally fight against the daily abuse and torture of his schoolmates, and the ignorance and prejudice of the school administrators in rural Wisconsin.

It is not a matter of being a sissy for not fighting back while he was in school. I challenge anyone who is faced with a large group of boys attacking him to defend himself.

I am also happy that his parents have finally come around to acceptance of his sexual orientation. But where were they during the school years, when Jamie was beaten and hospitalized, harassed into walking to school instead of taking the bus, and relating these abuses to his parents? My paternal instincts would have forced immediate and direct action with his attackers as well as the school, fighting for him when he was unable to. Waiting for Jamie to decide to move to a foster home several hundred miles away is not my idea of good parenting.

Tolerance can be forced by lawsuits and resolutions, but true acceptance starts at home.

STEPHEN BATES BALTES

Los Angeles

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It should outrage everyone that Jamie Nabozny was harassed and beaten at school simply for being gay. Why doesn’t it? Because in our society, gays are the only minority group it is still OK to hate. (Imagine the uproar if he was abused for being black or Hispanic.)

Fundamentalist pastors in churches across America routinely preach this kind of hate brazenly from their pulpits, where it trickles down into violence against God’s gay and lesbian children.

KEVIN KIRBY

Evangelicals Concerned

Laguna Beach