Dear Editor:
As a bisexual psychologist who has lived and worked in Jersey City for 20 years and raised a son here with a female co-parent, I was surprised and appalled to see homophobia rearing its ugly head in the form of Bishop Austin L. Harrold’s misguided campaign against the Family Equality Act.
Nevermind that gay, lesbian and bisexual people have been instrumental in renovating downtown Jersey City and saving it from the depths of poverty in which it was mired when I moved here in 1983. Nevermind that by doing this in the name of the Million Man March Harrold insults the approximately 5-10 percent of men in his organization who are themselves gay or bisexual. Nevermind that he is perpetuating the kind of bigotry that keeps countless numbers of gay and bisexual African-American men living lives of shame and self-hatred ‘on the down low.’
Let’s just deal with factual information, independent of one’s biases: sexual orientation is genetically determined, not chosen. Gays and bisexuals cannot make themselves straight anymore than heterosexuals can make themselves gay. We in the g/l/b/t community are asking that our unions be legitimatized – nothing more than that.
If sexual orientation is genetically determined, then it is ‘natural’ and created by God. I’ve a feeling God is way irritated with people who pretend to be holy but use God’s name to persecute their brothers and sisters.
The photograph you ran with this story says it all –Bishop Harrold, no one is listening to you.
Yours for a just society,
Margaret Nichols, Ph.D.