July 25, 2009 – I hear and read the phrase “homosexual rights” daily on television, radio and in print. Homosexuals believe they are discriminated against individually and as a group. Thus, they are very aggressively demanding their “rights.” This creates the question: What “rights” that everyone else has are denied to homosexuals that results in discrimination?

In the United States, our rights are listed in the Bill of Rights. Do homosexuals have and enjoy all of these rights, such as: right to worship, freedom of speech, right to assemble, freedom from excessive bail, to bear arms, due process, right to vote, to hold public office, to own property, to travel, etc.? Yes, on all basic legal rights provided to all Americans. What actual and legal rights are homosexuals referring to? They say they need special protection under the law because they are a disadvantaged minority. I find that the courts and Congress have always used three basic criteria to determine who or what group is a disadvantaged minority and thus in need and qualifying for special status in local, state and/or federal law.

CRITERIA 1: The group must show clear evidence that it is unable to attain adequate education, job opportunity or economic income as a result of discrimination. Research indicates that homosexuals as a group are well above the national average in education and income.

CRITERIA 2: To be a protected class, the group must clearly demonstrate political powerlessness that can be corrected only by special protection in law. The homosexual community has great power and influence in most all political areas.

CRITERIA 3: For a group to be a disadvantaged and protected class, they must exhibit obvious and unalterable distinguishing characteristics, such as: race, color, sex or national origin. There must be something unalterable that defines them as an individual or group, and this is the reason for discrimination against them. This appears to be the only area where homosexuals can claim discrimination, because they insist that homosexuality is genetic, which is an unalterable condition.

I find two major problems with this claim of discrimination:

• First, as shown above, homosexuals are not discriminated against in any area of basic legal rightsafforded all U.S. citizens.

• Second, research clearly shows there is no proof that homosexual behavior is genetic. Research done in the early 1990s (LeVay and Hamer studies) is the basis for this false assumption, but these studies did not prove a genetic link. Recently, the American Psychological Association revised its statement on homosexuality, effectively admitting that there is no “gay gene.” The fact is that many homosexuals have left that lifestyle, become heterosexual and have married someone of the opposite sex. Clearly, homosexuality is an attitude and a choice, and not an unalterable genetic condition.

Homosexuals already have all the rights guaranteed to all Americans. They want more. They want any speech that disagrees with their chosen lifestyle to be considered a form of hate. Just because you disapprove of someone’s behavior at certain times surely doesn’t mean you hate them or want to harm them. It doesn’t even mean you dislike them.

Most people do not want laws (hate speech) created that try to shove acceptance down your throat and then penalize you because you don’t approve of that lifestyle. This approximately 2 percent of the population wants the other 98 percent to approve and embrace their behavior. This is not democracy or even civility, but an extreme of intolerance and itself is a form of hate.

Homosexuals have all their rights. We don’t hate them. We simply don’t accept their lifestyle or their demands for false rights.

The author, of Boise, Idaho is retired and worked for 34 years with a California probation department.

Norman Shattuck for the Idaho Statesman