Unearthing Stories
I agree with Erik Martínez’s letter published in the July 2 LEO Weekly. Drag almost always dominates discussions about gay pride, but to be fair, drag queens also garnered much attention with their chorus-line kicks down Christopher Street after the raid at Stonewall. Neither side of the conversation mentioned the history, which leads to something untouched by Martínez’s letter: LEO has a voice, but so do we, and we should use it. The interviewees could have shifted the conversation but didn’t. I would only disagree on pride lasting a week. The festival, yes, but pride continues 365 days a year.
A week later, Toronto’s NOW, amidst the first WorldPride in North America, covered Russian émigré Justin Romanov. “When I have Canadian citizenship,” he said, “I want to burn my Russian passport.” This, in a country that, at first, denied visas to Ugandan gay activists, fearing they would seek asylum — as some 2 million others from across the world converged on the streets of Toronto. These and other stories happen here, too. Immigration, health care, fair labor and housing, homelessness: If LEO can’t find these stories, let us help.
Martínez, as a member of the Kentuckiana Pride Foundation, I invite you — and anyone else — to our next public meeting in the boardroom at the main branch of the Louisville Free Public Library on July 16 at 7:30 p.m. Please contact the foundation if you cannot make it — perhaps we can meet another time over coffee.
Aaron J. Angel, Downtown
Defending the Unborn
After reading “Fetal lobby is their Hobby” in the July 2 LEO, I was both frightened and disgusted. I am a 25-year-old single mother of a 10-month-old daughter, and I am vehemently pro-choice. I really wonder if the men supporting this bill understand how much thought and emotion can go into choosing to have an abortion (since I was not in a stable long-term relationship or married, I put serious thought into doing so). It is not easy. I would not consider it a convenient form of birth control, nor would I take it lightly.
If I was not fortunate enough to be able to monetarily support both of us and did not have the confidence in my emotional state that I do, I would have chosen to abort. Why would I want to bring a child into this world simply to twist it into something unhappy and lost in the world? At this point, if I — and I think I speak for many single mothers (and probably some not!) — got pregnant again, I know I would not be able to financially or emotionally support another child. What exactly is the benefit of forcing women who cannot take care of a child to have one? If these senators really wanted to “defend unborn children,” they would give the choice of carrying them to term (or not), unmolested, to the women who will be supporting them. A newborn baby depends completely on its mother to take care of it, and forcing a woman to do so will not result in happy, healthy children. Is that really their goal? They should be ashamed.
Kat Muir, Highlands
God Inc.
What the Supreme Court has united, let no citizen put asunder. With the Hobby Lobby decision, an activist Supreme Court has given legal sanction to the unholy matrimony of God and corporation and made the existential foundation of the Republican party (God is a corporation, too) the law of the land. Corporate lawyers will be working overtime trying to find loopholes based on religious grounds that will allow their clients to opt out of any part of the Social Contract.
The union of God and corporation forces religions into the position of sharing the responsibility for the immoral behavior of corporations. To maintain a shred of credibility, religions must seek an annulment from their marriage to corporations. So far, their silence has been deafening.
With their acquisition of a soul, will corporations place less emphasis on the immediate gratification of obtaining higher quarterly profits and put more effort into their long-term economic and spiritual health? Don’t hold your breath. We are more likely to see WCLWJW? (What Corporate Logo Will Jesus Wear?) as they compete for the ultimate prize-naming rights for the Second Coming with Jesus taking a victory lap dressed as a NASCAR driver.
Tom Ridge, Camp Taylor
