Open letter to Mike Schouten;
I can understand parents wishing to delay sexual information to young children, but in light of the increased number of suicides of bullied gay youth and murders of gay youth by their straight peers, I cannot understand your concerns of the inclusion of a homosexual component in anti-bullying campaigns.
Your belief that homosexuality is something to be chosen is dictated by your choice to lead a religious lifestyle, but has no more truth than you chose to be heterosexual.
Sexual orientation is no more a choice than the natural color of your hair. Lifestyle is akin to the clothing you choose to wear. Sure, you can try on different colors, but your natural color will always come forth.
With the exception of some women who have suffered abuse at the hands of men, most if not all male and female homosexuals know they are homosexual by the time they are 5 or 6. Their teachers, principals and parents can also see this expression at this early age, and science has even hinted at hormonal involvement in early pregnancy.
Why on earth would someone choose to live a life that is attacked on a daily basis by bigots like yourself? The answer is that it is not a choice, and the only ‘perils’ of being a homosexual are the same for any human on the planet: disease spread through unprotected sex, and abuse by those driven by fear of something they don’t or are unwilling to understand.
There are women on this planet subjected to great degrees of abuse for the simple fact that they are women. Are they expected to withstand that intolerance forever?
Canadian women finally stood up to this intolerance and have been gaining equality ever since, much to the chagrin of some men. I do wish that blatant sexuality portrayed in media was far more controlled and limited, but heterosexuality is the leader of such advertising, and it would do you well to remember that homosexuals come from heterosexual parents.
Canadians and humans all over this planet need to stand up to the bullying of the religious communities that try to force all of us to not only tolerate, but to accept and even celebrate their choice to practice a completely unnatural lifestyle of blind devotion and exclusion.
When God is asked to grant courage, love, acceptance, strength and more, God does not give these things to us. God grants us the opportunity to find within ourselves the courage, love, acceptance, strength and more that we feel we are lacking. I pray that one day all hearts will be open to the multitude of opportunity with which one can aspire to their higher self.
Gwen Valentic-Morrison
Surrey