This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I eagerly look forward to the time when people will be too embarrassed to spew homophobic venom in public, as Joe Rakes did in "Exposing kids to gays" (Forum, May 25). The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is one of the last groups that bigots feel are fair game for public ridicule.
But, really, how ridiculous it is to assume, as Rakes does, that a child raised by a loving same-sex couple is in the same jeopardy as one raised in a household where the parents are "drug abusers, alcoholics, or mentally or physically abusive"? What kind of lurid imagination conjures up these frightening and totally unscientific illusions?
Those who think like this need to calm down and learn that same-sex parents are like the rest of us — equally loving, equally challenged by the difficulties of child-rearing — and recognize that gay couples are growing in number and quickly becoming fully participating members of communities across the country.
Meanwhile, I caution these homophobes: Hateful remarks about gays are no more acceptable than those about African-Americans, Jews, Mormons, Hispanics, or any other minority.
Keller Higbee
Salt Lake City