First I was a "fag," then a "queer," later it changed to "gay," and now I've climbed all the way up the social ladder to "quirk of nature." In its "Arizona Living" section last Wednesday, the Arizona Republic ran an article about Amy Ettinger, 46, Valley film festival producer, and Claudia Work, 41, a family law attorney and chairwoman of the sexual orientation and gender identity committee for the Arizona State Bar Association. The Republic often runs stories about interesting relationships in this "people" section of the paper. The article was run under the heading, "Love of Film Leads Couple To Romance."
The article did not push any agenda whatsoever. It was just a simple, nicely written story of two community women who met on a "fix-up" by friends, fell in love, and have been together since January 2000. The relationship was cemented by the couple's enjoyment of movies, which they attend together often.
It wasn't that the story was unusual. Many such stories have appeared in Arizona Living over the past years. What raised the community eyebrow was that these women are lesbians. Naturally, starting yesterday, I've been keeping an eye out on the Letters to the Editor section waiting for a response. I wasn't disappointed.
Today's Republic offered two responses to the "Romance" story. I shall quote them both. The first, by Richard Stevens of Phoenix:
Kudos for profiling same-sex pair
Kudos, for your interesting profile Wednesday of Claudia Work and Amy Ettinger. It came as a surprise to me that the Republic would provide such an unbiased, non judgmental, non-sensational and agenda-free profile of a same-sex couple.
Amy and Claudia are happy doing their own thing. Society's foundations have not been rocked. The world is not crumbling around us because these two committed individuals share a life.
You got this one right. Thank you.
This cheery note was followed by a letter from Bob Fazio, also of Phoenix, who wrote:
Why feature this quirk of nature?
I was appalled by the feature on the lesbian couple.
First, I understand gays and lesbians do not choose their orientation. Second, I believe they are entitled to every right that any of us has. I've always welcomed them into my business as equal co-workers and into my neighborhood as good and responsible neighbors.
My gripe is not with them, but with the Republic's ultra-liberalistic morality in doing a story about them.
Why not hold up the standard model of relationships (male/female), not the very small minority?
By your display of photos and story, you hold up this couple as a model or as the norm to those who are young and uninitiated, thus tearing down one more brick in our society's moral standard.
We should respect all people, but remember that this section of the population is a quirk of nature, not the norm.
Let that sink in for a minute. The gentleman was very calm in his response. He admitted being gay is not a choice. Thank you, sir. He went out of his way to say how much he appreciated the money gays spend and the work gays do in his place of business. Thank you again. But he finishes by stating, "I believe they are entitled to every right that any of us has." That must mean every right OTHER than having a kind, true story written about our real lifestyle.
Mr. Fazio then asks, "Why not hold up the standard model of relationships (male/female)?"
The simple answer is we live in a country/world where diversity is the norm. Why shouldn't stories about normal, diverse relationships appear in the news? One wonders what would be upsetting to young people (many whom already accept gay relationships as being normal) about learning that gays can have fun, be romantic, and live in committed relationships that mirror those of straight couples? Is it possible they will learn the truth about the gay lifestyle? That it isn't much different than the straight lifestyle?
Mayhaps Mr. Fazio is concerned that the younger generation won't think of gays as "a quirk of nature," much as he no longer thinks of Blacks as niggers or Jews as kikes. Why would he not want today's young people to shuck the intolerance that his generation still possesses like he shucked the intolerance of his parent's generation? I'm sure members of the KKK or White Supremacy groups could easily answer this question for me.
