When I read a letter like Jake Brumfield’s, in which he says the last time he checked gay people “were not excluded from any of the constitutional rights” that he has, I just have to wonder. Is he hallucinating? Or maybe he spent the last ten years deep in a coal mine in the dark squeezing his eyes shut and keeping his hands over his ears? How can he not know about anti-gay discrimination?

The “whining” gay people do about their “extra rights” may be for any number of reasons:

Gay people cannot serve in the Armed Forces of this country, unless, that is, they pretend the entire time to be heterosexual. Can you imagine a federal law compelling heterosexual service members to pretend to be homosexual? Or thousands of heterosexuals being discharged every year, now matter how outstanding their military career, because it was discovered that they love people of the opposite gender? Ah yes, fairness.

In 39 states, gay people can be fired simply for being gay. And we often are! Can you imagine being fired for being heterosexual? (“We just don’t want your type around here, we’re a family-run gay business and, well, you know, we’ve got kids .) Ah yes, justice.

The vast majority of gay high school students report being harassed or assaulted at school every single day. Can you imagine heterosexual students getting spit on, taunted, punched, kicked, beat up and called “sick perverted breeders” by gay students every day? And teachers and administrators looking the other way, because, well, you know how cruel children can be, and after all, if you act heterosexual around gay people it just enrages them, everyone knows that. Ah yes, equal opportunity.

And on and on and on. “Extra” rights? Think again.

The only thing more disturbing than the pervasive and virulent anti-gay discrimination in this country is the insistence by some heterosexuals that it’s not even happening.

Patrick Letellier

Program coordinator

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center

University of California, Santa Cruz