The letter that was published Tuesday discussing LGBT community could lead to people believing stereotypes about themselves.
Yesterday, The Post published a letter to the editor that, at first glance, seemed to be merely arguing against the Supreme Court ruling for marriage equality. However, the language and opinions aired in the article were, in fact, incredibly harmful and dehumanizing towards gay people, with the writer directly saying that “homosexual activity is immoral.” While I could argue how hurtful and illogical this person’s rhetoric is (and believe me, it is) I feel it’s more important to talk about the negative impact of publishing this letter in The Post.
The views expressed in the article hardly contribute to a constructive argument against the Supreme Court’s ruling, and amount to little more than hate speech denouncing LGBT individuals as people with disorders who cannot be considered on par with “normal” cisgender heterosexual people.
While the purpose of the letter to the editor is to promote free speech and community discussion, this article is full of nothing but hate speech, and was in fact written by the founder of a designated anti-gay hate group called, “Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment.” While whoever green lights these letters to the editors could argue that they had no idea of the background of the person who sent in this letter, this information can be found in about 0.86 seconds using a simple Google search. The publishing of such a hateful letter can be incredibly damaging to members of the LGBT community on campus. Imagine if someone who had just realized that they are gay had read this letter. This letter could cause them to internalize these incredibly harmful thoughts and stereotypes about themselves, which can greatly damage their self-esteem and mental health. This inability to do even basic vetting of resources and the uncritical publishing of hate speech reflects poorly on The Post and is frankly embarrassing.
Free speech is one thing, and people are entitled to opinions that I may disagree with or are unpopular, but it’s another thing to publish hate speech that promotes discrimination and dehumanization of an already dehumanized and under-privileged group of people. We owe it to each other to create a safer space where people don't feel threatened based on their identity.
Eric Keep is a junior studying computer science.
