This letter is in regard to Sen. David P. Miller’s editorial which was ran in the Daily on the Oct. 13. I must say that I’m really sorry to read about your reaction to the approval of Benefits for Domestic Partners, which the Iowa State Faculty Board has just approved.

This is a great step for Iowa State and I am very proud of how the University is moving toward the future. Iowa State is recognizing how times are changing and is taking the appropriate steps to allow all individuals – no matter what their sexual preferences – the same rights.

Restricting benefits to heterosexual couples and disregarding homosexual relationships is a form of discrimination. If the same benefits can’t be given to all, then why should anyone receive them?

I am very glad that I decided to go to Iowa State. I’ve learned a lot here.

I come from a smaller city where a lot of people are not open-minded, and being around diverse groups of people didn’t happen very often.

If you didn’t fit the “mold of society,” you were labeled as different and weird. At Iowa State, you’re surrounded by diversity. Being surrounded by all this has helped me to become an open-minded individual and has helped me to learn that stereotypes are not always true.

In regard to sending your children to Iowa State University because of its “more conservative social climate,” I have one thing to ask. Have you ever been to Iowa State?

Come here and take one walk around campus. I can guarantee that you will not see one certain type of person. Everyone at this university is different, and we take great pride in that fact.

Iowa State has people from many different cultural, religious and economic backgrounds. Everyone at Iowa State is different, and that’s what makes this such a great place to live, play and go to school.

When your children go into the real world, you’re not going to be there to protect and tell them that they can only socialize with who you say. They will have to encounter people who are different from them at one time or another.

I think, Sen. Miller, that you need to come to Iowa State University some day and truly look at how much diversity we have here in Ames alone. Maybe go and meet some people who are different from you.

You’ll realize that the stereotypes you have about people who are different are not true. This might come as sort of a shock for you; but YES, this is Iowa, and YES, there are gay people here! They deserve the same rights as everyone else and the ISU Faculty Board’s approval is the first step toward this goal.

Troy Douglas Swanson

Sophomore

Business