Students weigh in on issue

Over these past few days, you have been getting non-stop letters about gays, lesbians, bisexuals and about how their love is right or wrong.

We here at PRISM/GSA thought the community should realize our reason for starting this group. This is a group for love and acceptance.

That's what we're all about.

Are we trying to turn you into a homosexual? No, it has nothing to do with that; we just want a place where people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or questioning can be accepted for who they are.

If you ask almost every one of us, we could give you a list of friends or relatives that are homosexual.

Do we find them any different than us? No, they just love differently than we do; it's just another difference between us.

If your best friend were to come up to you and say, "Hey, I have a confession. I'm gay," would you think of them any less than what they have always been to you? Would you turn your back on them and never speak another word to them? PRISM/GSA's mission statement is: "PRISM/GSA welcomes all gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning and straight youth to discuss anything concerning them. We aim to create a safe, loving, accepting environment, through meeting in and out of school. We also aim to educate the community about sexual orientation issues."

While we are educating people about the misconceptions of homosexuality, we are not teaching people to be gay or not that we want them to be gay. Does that sound so horrible?

A place where someone different can find comfort? Educating so that perhaps people would get out of the old pasts and realize it's the 21st century and there are tons of people who are homosexual around the world - even animals.

So yes, even with a lot of people saying we are wrong and going to hell because of this group, remember that we are not a religious-based group nor do we have an agenda to change the church.

We will continue to stand up for what we believe in.

For those out there who are reading this and agree with what we are saying, come join us for a wonderful night of music, laughter and fun on Saturday (Oct. 24) at Arts Place.

James Schubert, president; Emily Morris, vice president; Avery Loyd, treasurer; Trinity Whetstone, secretary; and Alicia McGraw, presidential advisor, PRISM/GSA

Sickened

To the editor:

I am sickened but not surprised by the letters I've read in The Commercial Review condemning the gay/lesbian community.

As one of the charter members of the now-defunct Jay County AIDS Task Force begun in the early 1990s, and as a teacher of Jay County children for 36 years, I am well aware of the prejudice that exists here.

I remember one high school student coming to me in tears: A teacher had called him "wimpy" because he enjoyed music. I was furious. I confronted the teacher, who did apologize. But the damage had been done.

That was almost 20 years ago.

And now, the 21st century finds some still concerned that homosexuals are somehow not God's children?

And don't quote me the Bible.

I'm of the same opinion as that of a rabbi quoted by A.J. Jacobs in his book, "The Year of Living Biblically.": "You can commit idolatry on the Bible itself. You can start to worship the words instead of the spirit."

I know that religions over the years have brought a sense of peace, a sense that we have some control over our lives. But religions have also brought chaos into our world. History says it all.

"The best we can do, then, in response to our incomprehensible and dangerous world is to practice holding equilibrium internally - not matter what insanity is transpiring out there. (from "Eat, Pay, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert).

But keeping quiet is hard to do when the insanity that is "transpiring out there," says, "I am right. I know what God wants us to be, (or) to do. Anyone else's ideas are heresy." How can anyone be so egotistical, so full of himself (or herself) to believe this?

I'm probably wasting my breath and paper and ink.

I have enjoyed and quoted many times to friends and book club members the lines from Phyllis McGinley's "A Garden of Precepts": "Feed a cold, Starve a Fever, Argue with no true believer."

Thanks to Dan Lillard, Dorcas Fields, Elizabeth Nesbitt, Andre Whetstone and others who support diversity in Jay County.

Sincerely,

Bev Priest

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