More News

Lee column on gays called ‘vile,’ ‘hateful,’ ‘ill-informed’

Friday, June 30, 2006

Blair Lee’s column attacking homosexuals and comparing them to pedophiles and serial killers is vile and reprehensible (‘‘Culture wars come to Metro,” June 23 Gazette of Politics and Business).

Just what is it about gays and lesbians that threaten Mr. Lee so much? My husband and I have reared our children to accept members of the gay and lesbian community in the same way we have reared them to accept all people of other races, religions, ethnicity. Bigotry in any form is not tolerated.

By publishing Mr. Lee’s column, you are promoting, fostering and condoning bigotry. For that, you should be ashamed and issue an apology to your readers.

Linda D. McKeegan, Baltimore

I was shocked and sickened when I read Blair Lee’s column about the firing of Bob Smith. His column was hateful and ridiculous by comparing homosexuals to pedophiles and serial killers.

As a writer, I support freedom of the press and Lee has a right to his opinions, especially since his falls under the ‘‘op-ed” umbrella. However, using language to spread hate and misinformation goes too far.

Greg Alexander, Baltimore

We are in a country that operates on a process of democratic representation of all viewpoints, not a theocracy allowing religious norms, which often collide with each other and discriminate, to dictate public action.

While I agree with Blair Lee’s argument that Robert Smith’s First Amendment rights were violated because of his remarks concerning gay behavior (Mr. Smith should not have been fired), Mr. Lee’s further comments, which summarize to, ‘‘But it’s OK to discriminate against gays because gays make (religious) people uncomfortable” are inexcusable.

His ill-informed, ignorant, bigoted rants are an exact equivalent to the cases he makes about hostile speech directed at women and blacks. It is pitiful that he does not realize or understand the comparisons.

Lauren Williams, Owings Mills

Freedom of speech and of the press is a wonderful thing, even though it allows Blair Lee to viciously attack his fellow human beings just because they’re gay or lesbian. I defend his right to write what he believes, but I condemn his vicious tactics. Why is Mr. Lee on an anti-gay crusade? What is he trying to accomplish?

Mr. Lee says, ‘‘... the preponderance of American religions condemn homosexuality, specifically homosexual sex.” Really? Where are the statistics on that? Even if his statement could be proved true, why would religion dictate legal and ethical treatment of our citizens?

Sadly, Mr. Lee has to sink to the level of a 12-year-old with his nasty comment about anal sex. This tactic is so typical of extreme conservatives — emphasize the sex to stir up ‘‘the base.”

Most socialized adults wouldn’t consider bringing up Mr. Lee’s assumed sexual behavior in a discussion. What purpose would that serve? Sexual behavior is private and has no place in a discussion about civil rights and discrimination.

As most extremists do, Mr. Lee excuses his condemnation and vilification of a group of American citizens by wrapping his argument up in religion. If it’s about religion, it can’t possibly be bigotry, hatred or discrimination, can it? In a healthy democracy such as ours, yes it can be and Gov. Robert Ehrlich treated it as such by firing Bob Smith.

Mr. Lee’s religious beliefs have no place in defining our civil rights.

Rob Lance, Columbia

I am writing to voice my extreme disgust with Blair Lee’s column. The column was ostensibly about how free speech was compromised when Gov. Robert Ehrlich fired Bob Smith from the Metro board due to comments Mr. Smith made about homosexuals being ‘‘deviants” in an unofficial setting.

However, the column actually was a vehicle for Mr. Lee’s own uneducated, bigoted diatribe against gays and the ‘‘gay agenda.”

He writes: ‘‘But the homosexual lobby is desperately and relentlessly trying to parlay the public’s tolerance into the acceptance of homosexuality as normal. After all, if God made homosexuals then homosexuality must be normal, right? Sorry, just because God created you doesn’t mean you’re normal. God created pedophiles and serial killers, too.”

As a lesbian woman, I can tell you that it is not my interest nor the interest of the groups I support to change anyone’s religious views or perceptions about what is ‘‘normal.” My only interest is in having laws and rights that protect me equally with other citizens.

Mr. Lee clearly holds extreme anti-gay values, and his piece is all about sharing those with your readers, not supporting the First Amendment (which, incidentally, I strongly believe should be upheld and protected, even for bigots like Mr. Smith).

If such a vicious piece were written about any other minority group, would they be published?

Amy Fraenkel, Takoma Park

It is distressing in the extreme to read Blair Lee’s opinions about homosexuals. It throws me back to a dinner I attended at my mother-in-law’s house some 20 years ago.

A mannerly woman guest was boasting that her church was launching a special initiative to welcome homosexuals and child molesters into their midst. As I nodded politely (I would never mar the solicitude of my mother-in-law’s table), I was struggling to swallow my food along with my pain and humiliation.

As a gay woman, I would be as horrified at the practices of a child molester as any heterosexual, as would virtually every gay individual I know or have ever known.

The brand of ignorance displayed by Mr. Lee proves that gay folks are still threatened in this society; that their rights come last; that they are seen as less than complete persons by many. Such thinking inevitably leads to violence.

At the very least, I would hope that the Gazette publishes an apology.

Sarna Marcus, Silver Spring

While the First Amendment protects Blair Lee’s right to express his opinion, I feel The Gazette should exercise better judgment in what it publishes.

It bothers me that publishing his opinion gives it credence and fuels hatred against a group of people who are not serial killers and pedophiles. Similar comments about any other group would never have been published.

There is simply no excuse for his comparison of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans to serial killers and pedophiles. Homosexuality does not predispose one toward sexually and psychological preying upon children or toward murdering someone.

I am not familiar with existing pedophiles and serial killers in the animal kingdom. There are however, more than 300 species of vertebrates that have sex with the same gender with no resultant condemnation by their animal peers.

I hope The Gazette will give equal time to the opposing point of view.

John R. Wilkins, Joppa

I am writing this to express my utmost sadness that The Gazette decided to publish Blair Lee’s inflammatory and derogatory statements against the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

By being citizens of this great country of ours, we are provided the privilege of our First Amendment right but when it is used in such a manner, it is a sad representation of where we are in society today.

I personally believe that no matter what religion you are, you should have the right to practice it and be respected for your beliefs. I, however, do not believe that this allows you as an individual to judge others or to cast stones due to a difference in teachings. I believe that no matter what color your skin is or what gender you are, that does not allow others to degrade you.

A further extension of this is sexual orientation.

My sexual orientation does not have anything to do with who anyone else is. It is who I am and I will not debate nature vs. nurture with anyone who does not have the ability to extend to me the respect I believe should be extended to all. I am who I am. I love and respect my partner. I am in a monogamous relationship raising our children together.

I work every day to provide for my family and I pay my taxes. I believe in religion. I respect my fellow man and I respect my brethren. I am not a pedophile nor have I ever murdered anyone. Grandiose statements that are made for the sake of inflammatory arguments to incite discord and hatred is not something that I respect.

You may not understand my lifestyle or my choices in life but that does not allow anyone to bash me for them.

Religion is evolving just as we are. If this wasn’t so, religious organizations wouldn’t be standing up to support the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. All we ask for is the respect and the same rights as others.

I think that even comparing racial slurs to this incidence was out of line. There was a time not too long ago that interracial marriage was forbidden because it didn’t fit the social norm. That definition has since changed and we are now in a place where you cannot discriminate due to the color of your skin.

I have lived in Maryland for more than 22 years and am a proud Marylander through and through. I am saddened that these vitriolic statements had a voice through The Gazette and that all it intended to do was to incite those that are already caustic against a community that is only trying to coexist.

I have no issues having others print opinions or statements that differ from mine. I do have issues though with being compared to someone who would ever hurt a soul especially a child or to tell me that my God does not love me for who I am. As a mother who loves her children with everything that she is, that is the cruelest slap of all.

Louise Ball, Waldorf

Blair Lee is probably correct in ascribing Gov. Robert Ehrlich’s decision to fire Bob Smith from the Metro board to election year politics. But his diatribe against gay and lesbian citizens is breathtaking in its nastiness and in its lack of sociological, psychological and historical accuracy.

To recklessly compare gays and lesbians to pedophiles and serial killers is so far beyond reason that it simply doesn’t deserve a response. And to irresponsibly misrepresent history in positing that neither women nor blacks have faced religious-based bigotry betrays an appalling ignorance of American history.

Mr. Lee certainly has the right to cling to these sad and increasingly marginal beliefs. But The Gazette should offer its readers better than this vitriol.

Gregory G. Lebel, Takoma Park

I respect Blair Lee’s right to express his opinion — no matter how misinformed and hateful it might be. I know he doesn’t feel he is being hateful, but every time he writes the word ‘‘homosexual,” his prejudice comes through.

He wrote quite incorrectly that ‘‘... the preponderance of American religions condemn homosexuality, specifically homosexual sex.”

The truth is most Americans are ‘‘live and let live” kind of people and don’t care about others’ sexual activities.

I’m not going to try to convince him to respect gay and lesbians, but we don’t appreciate being vilified and being compared to serial killers.

Laurie Morrissey, Takoma Park

I read Blair Lee’s column about Bob Smith.

It saddens me that by being ‘‘not normal” I continue to suffer in many ways like the ‘‘normal.”

Some days are more difficult than others. I just don’t want the suffering to continue.

Kirk Turner, Mechanicsville

Blair Lee’s column was deeply hurtful to gays and lesbians, their families, friends and supporters, and further it made broad statements about religion in general and the Catholic Church in particular that were incorrect, vastly oversimplified, and demeaning.

There is a vast body of churches, denominations and religious thought in this country that relies on inclusion and love for all people, including gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgendered. There has been over the past 50 years much biblical scholarship regarding its teachings, and significant numbers of progressive Christians believe that the teachings regarding homosexuality have been misinterpreted, and are now being used by fundamentalists to deny basic human rights to people who have been persecuted, beaten, tortured and murdered over the centuries and into the present time because of who they are.

Suffice to say that Leviticus, the source of much hatred toward gays, also finds the eating of crabs, oysters or ‘‘everything in the water that does not have fins and scales ... detestable to you.”

Jake Spencer, Annapolis

Blair Lee, like too many Americans, confuses majority opinion with justice.

When he allows homophobic comment from a member of the Metro board because ‘‘... homosexuality is different [from gender and race] because the preponderance of American religions condemn homosexuality ...,” he seems to have subjected my rights as a gay man to some sort of plebiscite and found those rights to be insufficiently popular to merit any sort of acknowledgment in the public sphere.

Because his polling apparently was conducted within that subsection of America culture that identifies as religious, his findings are suspect. Moreover, they are irrelevant. My rights as a gay man were upheld in Lawrence vs. Texas, affirming that my sexuality cannot be used as a tool of discrimination. To date, anyway, my Constitution trumps religious tradition and ‘‘training.”

Bluster about the ‘‘homosexuality lobby” aside, I am proud to be a member of a community that is no longer ashamed to defend itself against slander and abuse. Mr. Lee needs to understand that homophobia is just as offensive as racism and sexism and just as intolerable, particularly among public servants.

Hugh Silcox, Baltimore

I was quite disgusted with Blair Lee’s column. Comparing homosexuals to pedophiles and serial killers is ignorant and in bad taste.

Homosexuality does not predispose one toward sexually and psychological preying upon children or toward murdering someone.

His ignorant hostility outshines any rational point he could have attempted to make.

Suzanne Sable, Gaithersburg

Blair Lee’s negative comments can be justified under First Amendment protections. However, I feel that his comments were incorrect and full of slander and misinformation.

It is insulting to compare homosexuals to pedophiles and serial killers. It is also not based on fact, but on his lack of knowledge and emotional grandstanding.

I hope that you will seek out an editorial position from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and allow them to state their position as well.

Jen Porter, Towson

I am a firm believer in the right to free speech, and even the right to publicly express ignorance, hatred and bigotry. On the other hand, the press should have standards: hate-mongering extremists have plenty of other outlets in which to express their views.

In comparing homosexuals to pedophiles and serial killers, Blair Lee crossed a line that most responsible editors would not have let him cross. Homosexual behavior, unlike pedophilia and serial murder, has no victims, is not illegal in this country, and is found in nature throughout all human cultures and in hundreds of animal species.

Comparing innate sexual orientation with crimes committed voluntarily by one human being against another is an indication of irrational, muddled thinking. Mr. Lee and The Gazette, should be embarrassed and ashamed.

Joel E. Gallant, MD, MPH, Baltimore

I am shocked and appalled by Blair Lee’s column. Comparing homosexuals to pedophiles and serial murderers is not only mean-spirited but ignorant as well.

Pedophiles and serial killers cause harm to others, while gay people seek to build loving relationships with the same protections afforded our heterosexual counterparts.

Let’s not give into fear and persecute those who are different. Instead, let’s embrace those who are different and remember that diversity makes the United States a stronger and more vibrant nation.

Casey Anno, Havre de Grace

I am shocked at what Blair Lee was allowed to say. I understand the need for freedom of speech. But there is a time and place.

Mr. Lee was simply mad that his friend Bob Smith lost his job because he spouted some foul and hateful words. So, in turn, he spouted some more foul and hateful words. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

I’m not asking for Mr. Lee to lose his job. However, I think it would be prudent for The Gazette to do some editing when it comes to what he is allowed to write. It was unnecessary for him to go to the lengths that he did. He could have simply voiced his opinion that it was unfair to fire Bob Smith, without launching an attack on all homosexuals.

Toni Mucciarone, Finksburg

While I support everyone’s freedom to speak, I must question the merits of allowing unfounded, misinformation that glorifies hate toward any group of Americans.

There is absolutely no evidence that gays and lesbians are any more likely to sodomize or molest children than heterosexuals. This is misinformation of the worst kind and epitomizes the spewing of pure hate.

I’m greatly saddened that your paper would provide this platform of misinformation.

Mary Remington, Cockeysvile

I have heard of Blair Lee’s comments, especially comparing homosexuality to pedophilia and serial killing.

Please note my experience as a physician for 40 years, directing a residency program training residents in primary care medicine for 16 years. I am also involved in medical ethics, and serve as an affiliated scholar, Center for Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University School of Medicine.

I have been married for 47 years, and have two children and five grandchildren. I am not part of the gay-lesbian community, but have taken care of many patients from this community, and have two colleagues who have gay and lesbian children.

The profession does not consider homosexuality as a disease. And my single main point is that the pedophilia that I have known has all been in heterosexual individuals. My wife and I were shocked last year to read a report in our local paper of a sexual molestation by a married man with two children, and church leader. I have known other sexual offenders who were heterosexual. It is cruel to compare homosexuality to pedophilia and to serial killing. The homosexual patients I have known want to live a quiet life, and often are in loving relationships with their partners. Studies show that children that they adopt do as well as children from heterosexual children.

I see this as a human rights movement, like there was a time that a black and a white could not marry. It will take time, probably decades, to achieve the human rights that this population deserves. Like the Civil Rights Movement, the Abolitionist Movement and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, it will take time to achieve social justice for this community.

William Reichel, M.D., Timonium

Blair Lee’s column showed rudimentary crudeness and lack of understanding for people throughout the metropolitan area who are in long-term committed relationships (that just so happen to be same sex).

I am an executive for a global company and my partner of 21 years operates a company. We are active in our community, volunteer with various organizations, and we are major philanthropic givers.

The remarks by Blair Lee that compares homosexuality to pedophiles and serial killers is so outrageous that his words speak for themselves. His personal ignorance and obvious deep-seated insecurities about homosexuality are self-evident. The fact that The Gazette allowed such ignorance to be published is a disappointment and affront to gays and lesbians everywhere. Mr. Lee’s crude and hateful references to anal intercourse underline his personal homophobia aimed squarely at gay men. Why didn’t he attack lesbians by specifically mentioning lesbian sexual acts? Mr. Lee is a homophobe, that’s why.

To use religion, and religious references, as an excuse or ‘‘reason” to lash out against a minority population (and for what purpose?) is a dangerous proposition for both commentators and the paper.

Troy M. Watson and Dennis E. Wolfgang, Rockville

I truly feel that The Gazette can and should be able to print anything that it wants that does not incite violence — that is the First Amendment; but what is the value of printing vaguely cloaked references that merely put down a group of people?

Blair Lee made a vaguely cloaked reference to LGBT people being the equivalent of pedophiles and serial killers. No, he didn’t actually say that we were in the same class; but he clearly implied it. His points could have been effectively made without the sentence: ‘‘God created pedophiles and serial killers, too.” So, was there value in printing a sentence that debased an entire group of people?

This is not the first time that a newspaper has printed similar comments only to have outrage. So how did The Gazette fall prey to printing something that just lowers the public opinion of the paper’s editorial standards?

Clearly the decision to print something offensive that serves no public purpose is completely within the rights of The Gazette; likewise choosing to switch to reading your competitors is within my right should I see future instances of baiting of a group of people.

Mr. Lee might claim that by expressing my opinion and intent that I am an intolerant homosexual activist, but in fact I am just a gay person who is willing to defend myself and demand that your paper treat me with respect.

Erick Peters, Rockville

Blair Lee’s column seems painfully heavy-handed in dealing with the LGBT community. It seems that so many in this debate have focused on the idea that freedom of religion is a blank check to a loss of civility. Offensive religious opinions that attack a minority are simply not issues that should be brought up in civilized conversation. It isn’t proper to mock another’s beliefs or way of life.

As with his comments concerning the decline of ‘‘modesty, honesty and respect,” Mr. Lee demonstrates that those shoes only fit the LGBT community he has chosen to vilify. Never mind the fact that he shamelessly ties homosexuality with murder and pedophilia, both assertions so vulgar that only the already hardened reader would concur. As with this, his respect for the LGBT community is wanting in abundance with passages concerning the sexual acts of consenting adult males, which, frankly, has nothing to do with anything.

If the religious right would get their eyes and ears and minds out of the bedrooms of America, perhaps they wouldn’t be so terribly offended. Lord knows that there are plenty in this country who find Catholic dogma, conservative sexual practices, or conservative social mores to be offensive and demeaning. It is not the place of third parties to arbitrate the actions of consenting adults, nor is it any business of these parties what the morality of the acts in question are.

As for all of this talk about God, whom Mr. Lee seems to have a monopoly on, let men make their own peace with God. At the end of a man’s life, only he and God will stand together to hash out judgment and accountability.

Matthew J. Viator, Baltimore

I am shocked by the column Blair Lee wrote comparing gays to pedophiles and serial killers. I am heterosexual, but find no place for such ignorant and repugnant comments. I expect Mr. Lee to learn more about reality.

Heterosexuals are the pedophiles and serial killers, not gays. I also expect Mr. Lee to make a public apology in The Gazette.

Molly Hauck, Kensington

Besides being vile and vulgar, Blair Lee’s column is also ignorant. While I am an avid defender of free speech, one can certainly disagree with Gov. Robert Ehrlich’s choice to fire a Metro board member without the use of such hurtful, damaging and unprofessional commentary.

His personal beliefs and right to express them in any vile and inhumane way possible is fine at his own backyard cookout, but I would hope and expect that The Gazette would have a higher threshold of professionalism for those they hire as regular contributors to the editorial page. It would be refreshing if The Gazette decided to set a higher standard for discourse than all the other ‘‘rags,” radio talk shows and talking heads that are only interested in using the most incendiary and titillating words they looked up in the dictionary to use.

Montgomery County and the newspaper’s readership is not only made up of a large homosexual population, but also the friends and family members who love and support them. The Gazette readership is also made up of fair-minded people who have a higher expectation of the media than the sensationalism and mud-raking that Mr. Lee is dishing out.

I am not asking for Mr. Lee’s firing, but I am asking that he be held to a professional standard currently missing.

Kim Apperson, Silver Spring

I am disturbed by the tripe written by Blair Lee and his inflammatory comments about gay people.

This is exactly the kind of hate, often disguised as concern, that fuels anti-gay bigotry and prejudice that can lead to violence and discrimination against homosexual people.

Obviously, Mr. Lee doesn’t really know any gay people or else he would realize how ignorant he is in making statements like this. Even the Pentagon has renounced its views that homosexuality is a mental disorder.

His column reflects the misconception that being a gay person is all about sex, which is simply not true. My partner and I have been in a loving, committed, monogamous relationship for 19 years, and our relationship has been a model to our heterosexual friends of how relationships should be: respectful, faithful, kind and considerate of one another above self.

I am writing to share my view with The Gazette and your staff. I would hope that The Gazette would not support or publish this view in the future.

Please stop the hate, stop the bigotry, and especially from those who use religion as a divisive weapon.

Pastor Dale Jarrett, Montgomery Village

It’s sad to see that The Gazette supports such bigotry. Blair Lee’s fixation on religious dogma over reason and intelligence is indicative of an atmosphere of fear and oppression.

He wrote: ‘‘On TV, in the movies and in our schools the gay lobby is spreading the ‘gay is good, gay is normal’ message daily hoping to change public opinion. And if you resist you’re a bigoted ‘homophobe.’ Fine, you decide, is one man having anal intercourse with another man normal or is it deviant behavior? Careful, you might lose your job!”

It is obvious from such a statement that the message ‘‘the gay lobby” is spreading needs to continue to be broadcast through as many media outlets as possible in order to inform public opinion on the truths of the matter. Personally, I think one man having intercourse with another man is perfectly normal, and for that matter one woman having intercourse with another woman (Mr. Lee seems not to have considered that one) is also as normal as one man having intercourse with one woman.

The only true sexual deviant is one that forces their sexual proclivities upon another.

Daniel Corcoran, Lansdowne

I think the column by Blair Lee was appalling. He went too far when he compared gays to ‘‘pedophiles and serial killers.” On what basis does he make blanket statements against a whole group? Comparing gays to pedophiles is like says all Italians are in the Mafia, or all Christian blow up abortion clinics. It’s ignorant and hateful.

Robin Ward, Hagerstown

While I agree with self-described ‘‘angry white guy” Blair Lee’s assertion that Gov. Robert Ehrlich ‘‘cut [Bob] Smith loose” from the Metro board because of election year politicking, it’s quite obvious his opinion piece has less to do with the rightness or wrongness of Smith’s dismissal, but instead reflects his agreement with the content of Smith’s comments.

As an openly gay man, I find his opinions appalling. Of course he has every right to voice those opinions, even heinously offensive ones comparing gays and lesbians like me to pedophiles and serial killers. But let’s at least recognize what ‘‘heterosexual activist” Blair Lee is really saying: his comments prove he doesn’t really care about Smith’s dismissal. He is merely using that Trojan horse to allow him to expound his belief that ‘‘just because God created you doesn’t mean your normal.”

Kevin Sturtevant, Takoma Park