Timothy Kelly needs to understand that the citizens of our country have determined that race, religion, color, national origin and sex need protection from discrimination and bigotry.ÿ

Of those classes, religion and national origin cannot be genetically determined just as human sexuality cannot be so determined as yet.

Is it Mr. Kelly’s position that we should remove the civil rights that have been extended to any of the above groups unless their status can be determined genetically?ÿ

I am well aware that there is probably no “gay gene” even as there is no “straight gene.”ÿ

Some geneticists have opined that sexual orientation is most likely determined by a combination of genetic factors.ÿ

What has been established is that a person’s sexual orientation is determined by the age of two years.

Scientists don’t know why some people are homosexual any more than they know why most are heterosexual or even bisexual.ÿ

There are some who claim that most people are bisexual with a preference one way or the other.

The bottom line is that if a human being is even perceived to be homosexual, he or she is subject to discrimination, and many times violence.ÿ

That is why people who don’t happen to be heterosexual need protection. It is the duty of the state to protect all of its citizens, and to see that each is treated equally.

If that is granting “special rights,” then our founders and their successors in government have had it wrong for over two hundred years.

Duke Smith

Resident

San Francisco