Below are two editorials that appeared in The Salt Lake Tribune on Feb. 29, 2004. The first is an unsigned letter submitted by a gay high school student who lives on the Wasatch Front. The second is the editorial page editor's explanation of his decision to run the piece unsigned.

The letter written by the gay high school student presents some of the best thought I've seen on the issue.  Please read, consider and share.



Being gay and coming of age in ... 02/29/2004
The Salt Lake Tribune
Date: 02/29/2004    Edition: Final    Section: Opinion    Page: AA3
Keywords: Guest Column


Being Gay and Coming of Age in a Climate of Fear
Utah Voices

The other day I watched a woman on television cry because she felt so strongly against homosexual marriage.

"As a heterosexual and a Christian, I speak out . . . ban gay marriage!" She cried  --  she actually cried.

If you don't like gays, just come out and say it. Don't hide behind your religion and don't ever, ever hide behind God. He is our God, everyone's God, even mine, an 18-year-old homosexual. We are taught of his light, generosity and unending love, and that hate is never justified.

Now, however, it is convenient for many adults to use God not only as a shield but also as a sword.

It is hard enough that for the whole of our young lives we who are gay live with no identity. Our constant fear is driven by a wheel of bigotry. We are told God hates us and there is no place for us in this world because the Bible dictates that is so.

Every human has worth. Every child is special. I was born gay. I know this just as heterosexuals know they were not. To say I chose this life is ludicrous. Would you choose to live a life where you are threatened daily, where you are denied jobs and family? And don't tell me that we are murdered because we decided to be gay.

Even though I am an "out" homosexual, I will never be who I truly am. The stigma attached to homosexuals frightens me. I put on a facade at times because if I don't, I naturally walk gay and talk gay, attracting the attention of those who spit on me or call me "fag" from passing cars. Some adventurous ones even get in my face with threats, all because I merely walk down the street. I'm my own worst enemy, torturing myself over things I try to modify yet cannot change.

I deal with boys who dare each other to talk to me and make cruel entertainment of my orientation. They lick their lips suggestively, creating new scenarios to make the "fag" squirm.

The locker room was hell. I used to go early and change with the self-conscious boys who all have a certain silent camaraderie, changing feverishly, each hoping his own choice words aren't passed around like the Victoria's Secret catalog.

When I came out to my mother in the eighth grade, she asked me what she had done wrong. I could not convince her that it was in my veins, that it was my being. I've never been burned by women. I wasn't coddled by my mother, or dropped as an infant. I do not know how I am gay or for what purpose. I am just an observer like everyone else. I cannot explain my position the way I wish I could.

I just want to live my life in the truest and most honest way I can. The only way to do that is to live it for myself.

Why should our sexuality be scrutinized? It is nobody's business what happens between two consenting adults, gay or straight. You can turn anyone into a pervert. It is only the kind of light you shed upon a person that dictates how they are viewed and treated.

I believe sex is personal, not for public debate. Just as there are offensive, vulgar, and shameful homosexuals who flaunt their sexuality, there are also heterosexuals doing the same thing. It is unjust to label a community.

Homosexuals who want to marry desire it for legal, religious, and symbolic reasons, not to mock anyone. It is human nature, not hetero-nature, to partner up and settle down.

It is not immoral to love. It is not immoral to connect with someone and want to spend your life with that person. If you focus on the sex aspect you are so far from the issue that you need to pick up a dictionary and find the definition of love.

Gay people can have Christian values and some are Christian, embracing the beneficial values that God offers. Why focus on hate? It benefits no one. Being gay is like being short, tall, black, or white. It is something else that make this a diverse world.

Don't tell me God doesn't love me and that I was born damned. Tell me you don't like me. Tell me you're a bigot. If God hates me, I was a waste of his time and will be judged accordingly. It is not man's place to judge, it is God's. Every Christian knows this.

Stop holding marriage above our heads and crying that it is because you are Christian. I say give it to us because you are Christian.

The other day I saw a woman crying because she felt so strongly against homosexual marriage. Go cry because people starve, because children are abused, and because war and tragedy run rampant, but not because two people fall in love.

I cannot attribute my name to this article because I am a high school student and I couldn't bring any inconveniences upon my friends and family.

I don't want people to be sorry for me. I have friends who love me. I have family who love me. And you know what? It's not in spite of my being gay.

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The writer is a high school senior who lives on the Wasatch Front.




The exception that proves the  ... 02/29/2004
The Salt Lake Tribune
Date: 02/29/2004    Edition: Final    Section: Opinion    Page: AA1
Keywords: Staff Column


The Exception that Proves the Rule
By Vern Anderson    The Salt Lake Tribune

Occasionally people offer a guest column but don't want their name attached to it. Some suggest running a false name, or that the term "anonymous" would do nicely. Anything except identify who they really are.

Their reasons vary, but generally are self-evident in the text. What they have written could get them harassed, or worse, if their authorship is known.

Editorial page editors seldom grant these requests. That is because there are too many other fine people out there willing to write on sensitive subjects who consider the possible consequences secondarily or, it sometimes appears, not at all.

I received a column the other day from just such a person, a high school senior who happens to be gay, and is angry and hurt. He had attached his name to his unsolicited op-ed and clearly intended to weather whatever abuse came his way for sharing his feelings on growing up gay in Utah.

I was struck by the pain, frustration, youthful honesty and defiance roiling in his words. So I called him and we talked about what he had written and why.

It was clear to me that his unique observations, in the context we find ourselves today, merited space in the Opinion section. Why? Because discussions about same-sex marriage invariably overlook individuals and pass quickly to the political, social, moral, religious and, yes, constitutional questions that make this issue so fearsome, so complex, so visceral and so divisive. A wedge issue truly worthy of the name.

We had run columns and Public Forum letters on both sides of the issue. But nothing from a young man who had suffered for years and had some currency to speak, for himself and for other young people like him, to a wider audience.

He was willing to put his name to his words, but I couldn't see how we could publish it. He is a senior in a public high school, after all, and I couldn't let him set himself up for a flood of abuse that might do him serious emotional, even physical, harm.

I was calling to tell him that when the phone rang under my hand. It was our would-be columnist. A wise adult in his life, one of his teachers, had told him he should not open himself up to the scorn and ridicule that his column, under his byline, would surely bring him.

Would I consider running it anonymously, or under a pseudonym? I told him, with no relish, that I had never permitted an anonymous column in the Opinion section and I wasn't going to start now. There were too many other people out there willing to . . . blah . . .  blah . . . blah.

I considered writing a column about him. With a few quotes from his writing I could give readers at least the gist of what he had to say. But after writing the first few sentences I just stalled out. I was tying myself in knots. So I sought out a few of the wise people in this business who were familiar with all of the good reasons not to let anyone write behind a protective screen.

They could tell I wanted reassurance that the normal rules applied in this case, just as in all the others. So they tried to offer me something like that  --  yes, it certainly was a puzzler; yes, it's a shame you can't run it anonymously  --  but I sensed their own doubts.

Unsatisfied and uncertain, I talked to one other person.

"Of course you should run it anonymously," she said. "How else could you run it? You can't place in danger a person who can give your readers an important perspective they otherwise would go without. It doesn't matter where they come down on gay marriage, they should hear what this kid has to say."

She was right, of course. I saw it immediately and felt foolish. The bald truth is that I had been absolutely unwilling to even consider an exception to an unwritten rule I wholeheartedly subscribed to, even when that exception was staring me in the face and refusing to slink away.

I recommend this week's Utah Voices column on the third page of this section. After reading it, if you feel I was mistaken, please let me know. This is your page, too.

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