I found myself slowly becoming more confused when reading Andy May’s Nov. 6 letter, “All government law is based on morality” — until I glanced down to the bottom of his letter and saw the writer’s freshman classification. Only lack of knowledge could excuse one for trying to pass such extreme conservative rubbish for serious debate. Andy makes three “arguments,” each employing more convoluted logic than the last.

First comes the question, “What law is not made to impart morals on society?” If you think about it, Andy, all kinds of laws (taxes, criminal laws, trade regulations) can be made for all kinds of reasons (political, economic and moral). However, let’s not forget plain old ignorance and bias on the part of lawmakers — one only has to search the history of this country to find a myriad of examples.

Next, Andy seeks to argue that the love homosexuals feel for each other is not the same that heterosexual partners feel for each other, then goes into something about children that has no relevance to his point. I was able to glean from your letter that you are not gay (neither am I). My question then, is this: How do we know what they feel?

You mentioned three people that you feel strongly about, and I believe you. If you think about it, however, you have no way of proving you love any of them in the ways you claim. We just take your word for it. You might argue all homosexuals are lying about their feeling for each other in order to do their part in a large liberal conspiracy to bring down the country, but you should at least consider the possibility they are telling the truth.

Last of all, Andy uses the “fact” that “men are created with a natural emotional development to fall in love with women, and vice versa” to argue homosexuals “choose to be gay.” This is where Andy’s lack of knowledge comes most strongly into play. If you had studied basic sociology, you would know that the notion of romantic love is largely a recent phenomenon of Western culture. Before that, people were married for other reasons (mostly money or prestige) and even today in the United States, love has less to do with the equation than you might think. I’m not saying you’re wrong (I think love between men and women is a great thing), I’m just saying your claim doesn’t have anything to stand on.

Instead of offering arguments based on concepts you don’t know enough about, why not just tell the truth? What you are saying is simply an opinion, based on personal beliefs. You are a religious conservative and were raised to think homosexuality is wrong, so you don’t think they should be recognized as married couples. That confession should do — at least until you learn enough to have the ability to put together some coherent arguments.

Femi Oyekan

Senior

Management Information Systems