Sexual Orientation and Discrimination

Re “Equal Protection for the Last Outcasts,” Commentary, Feb. 27:

The belief that homosexual behaviors are the result of an unalterable condition over which one has no choice is not based on science or everyday experience. People are constantly changing their sexual behaviors. Whatever you might believe about the origins or nature of homosexual feelings, people always have choices about their behavior and lifestyle.

The attempt to define homosexuality as a class of people to be protected against discrimination does not help people accept their homosexual feelings. Instead, we should be promoting the morality and legitimacy of homosexual behaviors. After all, choice and options are what freedom is all about.

BILL DuBAY

Costa Mesa

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In reading Robert Dawidoff’s commentary, I remembered my stepdaughter (then 12) saying that she couldn’t understand why people “decided to be gay.” I asked her how old she had been when she “decided to like boys.” She looked baffled and said, “I didn’t decide to like boys, I just do.” I thanked her for proving my point and asked, “Don’t you think that’s the way it works for all people?”

I would ask people who have such feelings about homosexuals to see if they can recall the day that they made the momentous decision to be heterosexual. If you cannot remember pondering that question and choosing to be straight, then might it be possible that all people just are the way they are?

If only more adults could be as insightful as my teenager!

HEATHER BELLING

Anaheim

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Dawidoff wrote that Maine voters repealed a law “prohibiting discrimination against lesbians and gay men.” This gives the impression that special rights for gays were repealed. What really happened was the voters repealed an antidiscrimination law that stated it shall be illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.

This was not special rights for gays, but a law that gave a general right to all citizens regardless of sexual orientation. It would protect a straight employee, for example, from being fired by a gay boss who wanted to replace the straight with a gay, as well as the reverse. Properly worded laws, such as the Maine law was, apply equally to all. Perhaps Maine will reconsider its fears.

MARSHAL A. PHILLIPS

Los Angeles