After an exhaustive month of preparing for Awareness week with my friends, after a week of events, and after a backlash in the Daily’s opinion section, I find it is time for me to clear up a few things.

I would like to comment on the letter to the editor that Jake Brumfield wrote in Wednesday’s Daily. He said that “the last I looked they [LGBT community) were not excluded from any of the constitutional rights that I have.” That is simply not true. You, Mr. Brumfield, can marry any woman you choose with little to no effort on either of your parts. All you would need is a marriage license and a couple of signatures and from a legal standpoint, the marriage is all ready to go. I do not have that luxury.

Does anyone really think that me asking for the right to marry whomever I love is a “special” right? Equal rights are not special rights. And I would also like the whole world to know that being gay is not a choice.

For all of you heterosexuals out there, when did you choose to become straight? What a silly question, you were born that way, as was I born the way I am. Why would anyone choose to be something that would make every step of their life more difficult?

I did choose to stop lying to myself and others, in so doing I came out as a homosexual. But I was not gay at that instant. So for anyone to say that I am asking for special rights because of the lifestyle I choose to live in, that is wrong. And I hate to break it to anyone who believes that, but my “lifestyle” is very, very similar to most people’s on this campus. I get up in the morning, I go to class (occasionally), I eat lunch at foodservice, I go to work, I hang out in my room getting songs off of Strangesearch when it works. That is my “lifestyle.” I go home about once a month and spend time with my family. I get in arguments with my friends, I do silly things with them that will come back to haunt me because true friends never let you forget the stupid things you do. This is my “lifestyle.” Is it really different than any of yours?

As for the posters we put up on campus, I would really like someone to explain to me what the big deal is. The message those posters was conveying was and is quite simple, but apparently the message was lost in the mix somewhere. So here it is one more time: Everyone has the right to love.

There is nothing wrong with love. There is nothing wrong with tolerance, there is nothing wrong with acceptance. No one on this campus has to approve of homosexuality, but you do have to accept it. There are many, many things in this world I do not agree with. But we all have a right to our beliefs and opinions. You may not agree with mine, I may not agree with yours, but as long as our rights do not infringe on one another, then we all have to learn to accept our differences.

A rainbow would not be as beautiful as it is without all the colors in it. Think about that for a while. We, as humans, define ourselves in our individuality. That is what makes us so amazing, so beautiful. As a whole, humanity is a remarkable thing. How remarkable would we be if we were all the same? How would we recognize the very essence that makes us all so special? You need to look around and see things different from yourself so you can recognize what it is about you that is great.

I realize that some people do not want to look at a picture of two men kissing. No matter how tender and innocent that picture may be, you do not have to look at it. You do not, however, have the right to take it down. Taking it down takes away the opportunity for others to see it, and that is no one’s right. Maybe the next time you see something you don’t like, you should look twice before burning it. You might be missing something.

Jon Hand wrote in Wednesday’s paper to the people who were in charge of the poster campaign. He wrote “don’t act surprised by the results of your poster campaign. After all, you did expect them to be torn down.” As one of the persons responsible for that campaign, I would like to tell you that we were not surprised by the results. We were very disheartened. Part of being gay means always holding on to the hope that some day people will look past a small part of your life and into people to see what they really are. The posters being torn down only prove the point that understanding and tolerance are still a foreign concept to a college campus even in this day and age.

So here’s the deal: There will always be people like me. There will always be people who are different, people who will not stand by while their rights are trampled, people who will always be loving and accepting of everyone in spite of their differences.

I will never go away, I will never be silent. Is that really such a scary thought? I will leave this letter now with the thought that started it, and I will thank John Lennon for the quote: “All you need is love.”

Adam Calder

Freshman

Liberal arts and sciences

Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Ally Alliance Logistics coordinator