YES, HONEY.
"To the editor:
I write in response to the letter authored by my father, Mark McMenamin, "Of sexual anarchy and 'right paths,'" published on this page Aug. 3. I would like to remind my father that I am openly and comfortably bisexual, and that when he publishes opinions that "homosexual acts" are "perversions ... that cry out to heaven," he is speaking about at least one member of his own family. Having happily cohabited with my partner (and soon-to-be spouse) for the last four years, I must count myself as one of the "sexual anarchists" my father holds in such contempt.
If, as my father suggests in his letter, the AIDS crisis is a warning from a deity to the gay community, then that deity has appallingly bad aim: Plenty of heterosexuals are afflicted with the disease, while the vast majority of homosexuals are not. The collateral damage from this putative punishment would suggest that such a god is both capricious and cruel. (Incidentally, I wonder if my father and his ilk also interpret mad cow disease and trichinosis as divine retribution toward meat-eaters, or Lyme disease as a supernatural plague on hikers?)
I agree that cities attempting to ban Chick-fil-A restaurants is silly and counterproductive. But it is a gesture of solidarity, however clumsy, that I and other members of the queer community can appreciate in sentiment if not in practice. I expect the mayors of these cities might similarly try to exclude franchises that espoused, for example, racist views.
How wonderful that my father thinks that no one should be "subjected to hatred or unjust discrimination" (the latter of which I suppose is contrasted with "just" discrimination?). Perhaps someday we will not be subjected to absurd and condemnatory public statements from the people we love.
Sarah McMenamin
Seattle, Wash."
