To the Editor:
In his recent letter to the Yale Daily News (“LGBT should not teach anti-gay bigotry,” 11/30), Ralph Thomas Taylor DIV ’00 mischaracterizes my position.
He claims that I argued that “that every workshop, seminar, speech, class, etc. related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues” should include those who believe that homosexual acts are immoral.
I said no such thing.
Rather, I argued that the Opening Doors conference was pointless because everyone on the panel agreed on all the issues. Discussion without disagreement may be emotionally gratifying, but it does little to advance our knowledge.
Further, Taylor writes that those who believe homosexual acts are immoral must be guilty of “bigotry.”
By claiming that those who disagree with him are simply too prejudiced to be rational, he delegitimizes his opposition without giving any actual arguments. People who believe homosexual acts are immoral sometimes have carefully reasoned to their position.
Even if one disagrees with such reasoning, it ought not be dismissed as mere prejudice and bigotry.
Lukas Halim ’02
December 2, 2001