BunkoSquad

HOMOSEXUAL marriage and civil unions are not a "Beacon to the future" (editorial, Dec. 30) but a warning signal of social irrationality and corruption. Homosexuality is not a healthy, alternative lifestyle but neurotic behavior with negative physical and mental consequences.

Ms. Hamel doesn't give us her psychiatric credentials, but she may be looking at an old edition of the DSM. The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as a disorder in 1973. I hope for her patients' sake (if she is in medicine) that she generally stays more current than that.

For thousands of years homosexuality has been condemned and punished by all societies as repugnant, perverted behavior.

All societies? Or just the ones built upon rigid, patriarchal monotheism? That's a pretty sweeping statement, for which I'd need some serious citation. Which I'd counter with two words: Ancient Greece.

Some countries have put homosexuals to death.

And...? Is this wistful thinking on Ms. Hamel's part? Some countries have also put to death women who dared speak their mind in a public forum. Surely she realizes that that standard for execution can change.

Promiscuous homosexuals today are a major source of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Was this letter written in 1985? HIV rates are slowing down in the West; the most affected group these days are children in Africa. Is Ms. Hamel suggesting that children in Africa are having promiscuous homosexual sex? Again, I'd like to see citation. From a more current source than a Time magazine with Cyndi Lauper on the cover.

To make homosexual marriage legal is not a right but misguided social approval to immoral and dangerous behavior.

Sez you. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts feels otherwise.

It will encourage youngsters in that direction at a time when they are too young to know better.

That's why you can't get married when you're a youngster. Y'know; age of consent and all that. As for "encouraging youngsters in that direction", I don't know. I haven't really seen a huge number of people leaving hetero relationships to go gay. Maybe things are different in Brookline.

It will cause much social destruction and pain and should be publicly condemned.

See: end of slavery, women's suffrage, civil rights, integration, blah blah blah. Don't people ever get tired of being this wrong?

If it is all right, why is the number of suicides among homosexuals so high?

Oh, now the ham-fisted attempt at compassion. I wonder if some of these suicides have anything to do with growing up, knowing who and what you are, but knowing that a sizeable portion of the world sees you as "repugnant" and "perverted", and blames much "social destruction and pain" on you? Maybe growing up in a house with the kind of person who would write a letter like this?

Focus on the facts, not your sympathetic feelings. Life is real.

Ms. Hamel, you have not given us one fact to focus on. All you have to offer is your bigotry and fear. Once in a while someone will claim that being against gay rights doesn't mean you're intolerant and bigoted. But then Ms. Hamel comes along and strips it all down to the bone. Life is real, ma'am. But so is justice.