Column:

MU should strive for acceptance of LGBT community

By Ryan Beck

Published Oct. 5, 2007

The upcoming election - and by "upcoming," I mean it's still more than a year away - is filled with plenty of new, interesting ideas. Take, for example, the first YouTube.com debate held about two months ago. Something said that night made me kind of upset, but I forgot about it until recently, when someone mentioned the subject in one of my classes. One of the video questions that had been sent in was from a former Army Arabic interpreter who was kicked out because he was gay.

So, here's the deal: If that guy speaks Arabic, which is an important skill in high demand, then I personally don't care whatever else he uses his tongue for. There are too many stupid restrictions on gay men and lesbians that are just plain upsetting. I mean, didn't we see a form of this after slavery during reconstruction? Those were called Jim Crow laws. Well, now it looks like there are some anti-gay "laws." What should we call these? Lance Bass laws? That's probable.

I am not trying to make light of this situation (as light as Luciano Pavarotti's loafers?), but if you do not laugh, then you will cry.

If you read the Tuesday edition of The Maneater, you would have seen on the front page a wonderful little article written by the lovely and ever-so-talented Kiran Kaur. The story was about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender acceptance and policy implementation at MU. A graphic published alongside the story showed, out of five possible stars, how many stars MU would receive in a "friendliness rating." One statistic threw me: "Sexual Orientation Score: three out of five stars."

Anyone want to tell me what this means? That three out of five people who sleep with somebody from MU will be satisfied? But I digress.

The point is MU received only 2 1/2 stars out of five as its overall score. Now, I got a B in statistics, so I am a little skeptical on how they collected this data and all that, but still, 2 1/2 out of five? That is 50 percent.

There is no reason why sexual orientation should matter. I am glad the rating for acceptance was near perfect. Really, who cares what two people do when they are alone? I don't and neither should you.

Gay or straight - it's all the same thing now. And I know there is some backwoods asshole saying, "Gays is bad!"

All I can say to that guy is, "Look, Jethro, my gay friends shouldn't be ridiculed for sleeping with whomever they want. It can't be any worse then you sleeping with your sister. Now hop in your Dakota Sport and pick her up from the IHOP."

The last time I checked, there are still people dying from cancer every day, right? There is a war going on, correct? Then why does it matter who puts what where and how it feels when they do that? It just doesn't.

I say let gay men and lesbians in the military, let them get married and raise kids or at least let the couples get lower rates on their car insurance.

Look, America was founded on stuff like this. When Thomas Jefferson plagiarized John Locke and said all men are created equally, shouldn't that include all men (and women)? I say yes.

I don't want to shove acceptance down your throat; hate who you want to hate, that is fine by me, but do it for a real reason. Honestly, where they like to put their hoo-hoo is just not a real reason.

Love, Ryan Beck