[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 65 (Tuesday, May 23, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E815-E816]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE CASE AGAINST BIGOTRY

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                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 23, 2000

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I recently saw an editorial 
of such eloquence and passion that I believe it should be shared with 
the membership of this body. Since we from time to time deal with 
issues involving the rights of gay and lesbian people, I believe it is 
extremely important for the Members to read this mother's cry for 
justice and I hope that it will factor into the decisions we make in 
the future.

 [For the Valley News (White River Junction, VT/Hanover, NH, April 30, 
                                 2000]

                         (By Sharon Underwood)

       As the mother of a gay son, I've seen firsthand how cruel 
     and misguided people can be.
       Many letters have been sent to the Valley News concerning 
     the homosexual menace in Vermont. I am the mother of a gay 
     son and I've taken enough from you good people.
       I'm tired of your foolish rhetoric about the ``homosexual 
     agenda'' and your allegations that accepting homosexuality is 
     the same thing as advocating sex with children. You are cruel 
     and ignorant. You have been robbing me of the joys of 
     motherhood ever since my children were tiny.
       My firstborn son started suffering at the hands of the 
     moral little thugs from your moral, upright families from the 
     time he was in the first grade. He was physically and 
     verbally abused from first grade straight through high school 
     because he was perceived to be gay.
       He never professed to be gay or had any association with 
     anything gay, but he had the misfortune not to walk or have 
     gestures like the other boys. He was called ``fag'' 
     incessantly, starting when he was 6.
       In high school, while your children were doing what kids 
     that age should be doing, mine labored over a suicide note, 
     drafting and redrafting it to be sure his family knew how 
     much he loved them. My sobbing 17-year-old tore the heart out 
     of me as he choked out that he just couldn't bear to continue 
     living any longer, that he didn't want to be gay and that he 
     couldn't face a life without dignity.
       You have the audacity to talk about protecting families and 
     children from the homosexual menace, while you yourselves 
     tear apart families and drive children to despair. I don't 
     know why my son is gay, but I do know that God didn't put 
     him, and millions like him, on this Earth to give you someone 
     to abuse. God gave you brains so that you could think, and 
     it's about time you started doing that.
       At the core of all your misguided beliefs is the belief 
     that this could never happen to you, that there is some kind 
     of subculture out there that people have chosen to join. The 
     fact is that if it can happen to my family, it can happen to 
     yours, and you won't get to choose. Whether it is genetic or 
     whether something occurs during a critical time of fetal 
     development, I don't know. I can only tell you with an 
     absolute certainty that it is inborn.
       If you want to tout your own morality, you'd best come up 
     with something more substantive than your heterosexuality. 
     You did nothing to earn it; it was given to you. If you 
     disagree, I would be interested in hearing your story, 
     because my own heterosexualtiy was a blessing I received with 
     no effort whatsoever on my part. It is so woven into the very 
     soul of me that nothing could ever change it. For those of 
     you who reduce sexual orientation to a simple choice, a 
     character issue, a bad habit or something that can be changed 
     by a 10-step program, I'm puzzled. Are you saying that your 
     own sexual orientation is nothing more than something you 
     have chosen, that you could change it at will? If that's not 
     the case, then why would you suggest that someone else can?
       A popular theme in your letters is that Vermont has been 
     infiltrated by outsiders. Both sides of my family have lived 
     in Vermont for generations. I am heart and soul a Vermonter, 
     so I'll thank you to stop saying that you are speaking for 
     ``true Vermonters.''
       You invoke the memory of the brave people who have fought 
     on the battlefield for this great country, saying that they 
     didn't give their lives so that the ``homosexual agenda'' 
     could tear down the principles they died defending. My 83-
     year-old father fought in some of the most horrific battles 
     of World War II, was wounded and awarded the Purple Heart.
       He shakes his head in sadness at the life his grandson has 
     had to live. He says he fought alongside homosexuals in those 
     battles, that they did their part and bothered no one. One of 
     his best friends in the service was gay, and he never knew it 
     until the end, and when he did find out, it mattered not at 
     all. That wasn't the measure of a man.
       You religious folk just can't bear the thought that as my 
     son emerges from the hell that was his childhood he might 
     like to find a lifelong companion and have a measure of 
     happiness. It offends your sensibilities

[[Page E816]]

     that he should request the right to visit that companion in 
     the hospital, to make medical decisions for him or to benefit 
     from tax laws governing inheritance.
       How dare he? you say. These outrageous request would 
     threaten the very existence of your family, would undermine 
     the sanctity of marriage.
       You use religion to abdicate your responsibility to be 
     thinking human beings. There are vast numbers of religious 
     people who find you attitudes repugnant. God is not for the 
     privileged majority, and God knows my son has committed no 
     sin.
       The deep-thinking author of a letter to the April 12 Valley 
     News who lectures about homosexual sin and tells us about 
     ``those of us who have been blessed with the benefits of a 
     religious upbringing'' asks: ``What ever happened to the idea 
     of striving . . . to be better human beings than we are?''
       Indeed, sir, what ever happened to that?
       (Sharon Underwood lives in White River Junction, VT)

       

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