I’m astounded that the Iowa State Daily would print Robert Zeis’ hilariously idiotic October 11 anti-gay column.

Would this paper print a column about how blacks are getting “uppity” and need to “learn their proper place?”

Or how women should stop trying to be like men and should get back to making babies, like the Bible says?

Of course not, but apparently it’s still acceptable to bash queers.

Zeis doesn’t like gays coming out of the closet because it stifles his free speech, he complains. He bases his argument on the fact that he “disagrees” with being gay but can’t say so without being chided.

Can’t he see how inane his argument is? Why should being gay, a matter of a person’s identity, be something to agree or disagree with? Does Zeis agree with being blonde? Does he disagree with being over six feet tall? And where does he stand on having green eyes?

And what is a gay “lifestyle”? There are gay republicans and democrats, gay physicists, teachers, mail carriers, dock workers, writers, supermarket checkers, mechanics, athletes and stock brokers. Which of the thousands of lifestyles we live is the “gay lifestyle?”

He’s probably backward enough to be referring to the 1970s gay dance club lifestyle, in which a very small chunk of the gay population spent a lot of time at discos. Maybe he just recently saw that late 70s Village People movie “Can’t Stop the Music.”

Zeis objects to being called a homophobe. But I think it’s fair to say that someone who has such an extreme reaction to something as neutral and benign as a person’s orientation does have a phobia.

Zeis says he opposes our behavior. But being gay is not a behavior. What gay or lesbian behavior does Zeis oppose?

Paying bills, grocery shopping, watching TV, driving to work, playing softball, helping our kids with their homework, getting our cars tuned up, eating breakfast?

And even if there was such a thing as gay behavior, why would he care? What business would it be of his?

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter if being gay is genetic or not. It doesn’t matter if Zeis likes gay people… or black people or women or Jews.

No matter where his prejudices may take him, gays still should have every right Zeis has — to marry the consenting adult of their choice, to live without fear of gay-bashing, to be judged at work on their performance only, to enjoy equal protection under the law like the Constitution says.

Heterosexuals “flaunt” their orientation all the time — holding hands in public, keeping spouses’ pictures on their desks, wearing wedding rings, kissing under the mistletoe. Every one of those behaviors trumpets to the world that they have sex with someone of the opposite gender. But do we tell them to “keep it in the bedroom where it belongs”? No, because human affection is not a bad thing. It’s what keeps us sane.

Zeis boasts that he doesn’t need a straight pride festival. That’s because EVERY day is Straight Pride Day. Just watch the straight couples on the streets and in Burger King.

As soon as gays and lesbians aren’t treated as something less than full citizens, as soon as we can hold hands in public just like our straight friends, as soon as bigots stop writing columns about “disagreeing” with who we are, then we probably won’t need gay pride festivals anymore, either.

I don’t need Zeis to “support” my orientation. I do need him to mind his own business and stop writing columns that say I have no right to be proud of who I am — a happy, successful man who happens to be gay.

I’m not ashamed of being gay and I’m not going to hide it because Robert Zeis doesn’t want to think about it.

Scott Miller

St. Louis, MO