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Editor:
On May 4, 1999, Mary Schroyer wrote a letter to newspapers around the state concerning the hate mail she received due to her public support of "traditional marriage." I am disturbed by her receipt of hate mail and do not in any way support this type of behavior. We should all be able to openly and respectfully discuss our differences on issues.
I certainly know how Mary must have felt when she read her mail, because, as a member of the gay and lesbian community, I feel the same way almost every day when I read the letters to the editor that continually degrade my lifestyle choices. It is very painful to read letters written by people who do not know me, but yet condemn me. Last Sunday, a letter in the paper stated, "Every great civilization's destruction was directly preceded by widespread homosexual promiscuity and its acceptance." I am certainly not out to destroy our society. Just like other productive members of our state, I work, I pay taxes, and I am very involved in the community, both gay and straight.
Not only do anti-gay letters to the Editor appear regularly, but some newspapers themselves support anti-gay positions as well. On April 25, 1999, the Burlington Free Press wrote an editorial supporting the position that gays and lesbians should not be granted the right to legally marry. They propose that we should accept something similar to marriage, but not quite marriage itself. That reminded me of the doctrine of "separate but equal" (which was subsequently struck down by the courts) in the treatment of African Americans back in the 1950s. Then, it was okay to grant one group of people different civil rights than another group of people. I had thought that we had come a long way since then, but it seems that the Free Press is advocating that we return to those separatist values. It is most disturbing to me that we are considered second class citizens by one of the largest newspapers in Vermont.
I hope that Mary and others will think about, and equally condemn, the hate letters that appear in newspapers across Vermont almost every day attacking my lifestyle and who I am.
Virginia Renfrew
Montpelier VT
