Letters to the Editor
Kudos
to Outgoing Editor Euan Bear
We
want to thank you for sharing your talent and your dedication with all
of us who read and love OITM. You are a shining star in the GLBTQ community!!
BEV YOUREE and CAROL NEPTON
Berkshire, VT
Gays, Catholics and the Vatican
It is becoming more problematic
to be both Gay and Catholic. On the one hand you have a Church that condemns
GLBT people at the drop of hat. On the other hand you have certain parts
of the GLBT Community who think it is not ethical for GLBT people to be
Catholic.
The recent Vatican Instruction
on Gay Priests was not a doctrinal statement about the moral status of
homosexuality, but rather a prudential judgment about who should be admitted
to seminaries. Prudential judgments are by definition open to question.
However, rhetorically the Vatican can punch, and has been known to use
its elbows and the occasional low blow in the clinches. Certainly one
cannot read this document and arrive at any other conclusion than it is
a mean spirited, and a homophobic document.
A recent article by a syndicated
gay columnist pretty much sums up the other side of this coin. We should
out any clerics we can, that way we will force them to support gay rights
or be seen as hypocrites. In striking out at the Vatican, I think it is
important to not strike out at GLBT Catholics in the process. The syndicated
columnist engaged in what borders on an irrational attack on gay priests.
Such an attack also denies the ability of GLBT Catholics to trust their
own moral experience when it comes to assenting or dissenting as a matter
of conscience on current Church's positions. My issue is not with the
syndicated columnist. I think he has every right to express his opinion
in an uncensored manner; rather my concern is with balance. None of the
Gay Media that ran this syndicated journalist column made room for a GLBT
Catholic response in their letters to the editor, however, other members
of the gay media and straight media did print our response. My point is
not to attack the syndicated columnist who wrote the article, but to raise
the issue of fairness and balance in the Gay Media when dealing with the
issue GLBT Catholics.
Many GLBT Catholics stay
in the Church because of their deep love for their parish communities,
and do challenge homophobia in the Church through debate. The debate is
taking place, and gay Catholics betray no disloyalty or impiety to either
the Church or the GLBT Community by participating and remaining within
the Church.
JOE MURRAY
US Convener
Rainbow Sash Movement
Actively Inspired
Thank you for printing my little
blurb in this past month's issue about OITM's unintentional inspiration
that booted me into helping with the new LGBTQ project in Windham County.
After reading it in print I realized that those who have worked very hard
at the AIDS project may be offended by my remarks. I would like to give
my apologies to those who may have thought that I was commenting on the
AIDS project directly. I was merely showing my disappointment in the lack
of community events in our area.
Adrienne deGuevara
Westminster
No to Constitutional Amendment
I've heard about the debate of people
trying to make people separated from one another by putting in a constitutional
amendment. To me this sounds like segregation all over again. We should
treat everyone equal. As a transsexual female in the very beginning process
of transitioning from male to female, I feel we are all equal. Let's have
freedom for everyone. We are all equal, let's keep it that way.
By amending the constitution
we are promoting hatred and bigotry.
Let's stop that.
BRITTNAY JAMES
Piermont, NH
Lessons from Canadian Health Care
I would like to highlight a
central element of the health care debate that seems to be getting almost
no notice—how to address the wildly inefficient administrative structure
of the current system.
My family and I had the good fortune
to live in the Canadian province of New Brunswick for five years in the
1970s. During that time, my daughter was born, my son had an eye operation
and both my wife and I had outpatient hospital procedures. All of this
was in addition to the normal run of health care needs —shots, eye
exams, flus and grippes — of a young family. For all of this, we
filled out exactly one (count 'em, ONE) insurance form. After that initial
form, we were issued wallet cards (a new one arrived automatically for
my daughter when she was born) which we showed whenever we went to a doctor,
a pharmacy or a hospital. Doctors' offices usually had just one nonmedical
employee for reception and paperwork duties because they had only one
insurance provider and one set of coverage rules to manage, and no problems
billing uninsured patients.
One continues to hear near-hysterical
stories of waiting lists for care in Canada, but is this so different
from our own system? I was recently referred to a specialist by Central
Vermont Hospital and found that the first available appointment was three
months away. In any case, no one is claiming that Canada or any of the
other developed countries' health care systems are not facing the same
cost and demographic pressures we are: the twin challenges of an aging
population and ever-escalating medical costs. But this is a largely separate
question from the (very costly) inefficiency of how our system is administered.
I find it hard to understand
how this issue has received so little attention. It seems obvious on its
face that a single-payer, universal coverage system with a single set
of coverage and rules, whether administered by government or a private
contractor, would be vastly simpler and more efficient. It would benefit
medical providers by greatly simplifying their business operations. It
would benefit small businesses and encourage entrepreneurship by removing
the huge burden of providing—or refusing to provide—medical
benefits. It would benefit large businesses by removing the burden of
employee medical insurance and/or high job turnover and strikes. Ditto
for municipal and state governments. And finally, it would benefit the
general public by doing away with the whole idea of being uninsured, as
is already the case in every other developed nation in the world.
ANDREW JACKSON
Montpelier
King was Advocate for All
As a gay man, I am also saddened by
the passing of Coretta Scott King because in addition to being a tireless,
outspoken symbol of the civil rights movement and a human rights advocate,
this great lady spoke out about the struggles of gays and lesbians. She
recognized that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong.
On March 30, 1998 she said, "I
still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of
lesbian and gay people and I should stick to the issue of racial justice.
But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, 'Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'" I appeal to everyone
who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream to make room at the table
of brother- and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people."
WILLIAM C. STOSINE
Iowa City, Iowa
At Witt's End by Leah Wittenberg
