Writer's assumptions are simply ridiculous

I read with sorrow the letter entitled "Don't be intimidated into supporting gay rights" by Kathy Hood of Sandpoint. (Bee, Feb. 14)

It is all too easy to forget that our ancestors moved to this country to escape the same kind of oppression that this letter exhibits. In it, the writer asks "… what if the gays came to Idaho to try to manipulate the passing of a homosexual hate-crime law."

Well, what if they came here to have a beer?

Making assumptions about people's intentions is exactly the kind of thinking that we don't need.

Prejudice against any other group of people that we deem "different" robs us of expanding our knowledge of our own neighbors. Replace the word "gays" in that letter with any other adjective — African Americans, Mexicans, Asians … deaf, dumb, blind … or better yet, redheads, brunettes and blondes — and hopefully you see the ridiculousness of the assumptions that are made.

Equating the passing of hate-crime laws with the loss of freedom of speech "to protect our children from immoral risky behavior" is simply rhetoric designed to spread fear, the same kind of rhetoric that was used to manipulate us into a war in Iraq (while the real perpetrator of the 9/11 disaster is still running around the Middle East.)

Let us not confuse a sexual preference for pedophilia, as this writer would like us to do.

The writer goes on to state that she has "had enough of people from liberal states such as Oregon coming … to Idaho, to try to change our laws in their favor." Maybe we should restrict voting rights. That worked so well in our not so distant past.

ALAN LEMIRE

Priest River