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Column Political Perspective By Jon Bolduc I listen to the ignorant, rampant anti-gay sentiment everyday and encounter it regularly at Windham High School. It angers me to see people making claims that gay marriage is going to alter the minds of children and corrupt the standards of Christianity. As for the people who make those claims, over the radio, on the television: Do you think that they have ever, in their lives, seen past the negative (and stupid) stereotypes spread by the media and ignorant fools? Stereotypes such as all gay people have lisps and like fashion and dress up like girls or that all gays are irresponsible with sex and go to gay orgies and get AIDS and spread AIDS. In fact, high school girls are just as irresponsible as some gay men. Straight males have sex just as stupidly. Gays probably have just as explicit fantasies and desires as straight men do. But gays are different, and so they are portrayed in some media and in some churches in the ''gay man stereotype.'' You know, the feminine, let's go shopping and get our nails done stereotype that some gays fall into. I even feed the fire daily when I call things ''gay'' casually talking to friends. I have a friend in Boston, an aspiring playwright who wrote a short play about two gay, ex-lovers who meet at a conference. One of them, who has chosen to remain in the closet, writes a letter to his ex-lover's magazine about gay rights, and the ex-lover refuses to print it anonymous, ensuring in an argument about ''staying in the closet.'' One of the lines, if I remember correctly, is: ''What gay man in American society today would choose to remain in the closet out of his own free will?'' and I say, it is mighty hard to be a publicly gay man in a public high school. You have straight people walking the halls, holding hands and kissing between classes, but I have yet to see two men hold hands walking down the halls. All of the gay friends I have at Windham have relatively long distance relationships. As a straight man, when I type these kinds of things, I somehow have to state the fact; ''I am straight'' or, ''I am straight but...'' It's like I have to defend what I think I don't like it, but it's a comfort thing. Has it ever occurred to these so-called ''concerned parents'' that the children who grow up to be gay men or lesbians may be best friends with their own children at the moment? Or that some gay men are just like them, but they have a different sexual orientation? I think they refuse to look past the stereotypes and negative portrayals and see that these people are not going to corrupt America. If they were, they would have already. There are many gay Americans in the world, and they haven't destroyed America's values. Politicians say that we need to uphold the American dream, a dream that really no longer exists. America is a great country; we've got the wealth, the military, but what we don't have is true freedom. When you think of the founding of America, you (if you're a politician) think of the founding blocks of democracy, right? You think of soldiers fighting for freedom against tyranny. But no, that came later. The first people to come to America were Puritans. You probably know about them, right? They were hypocrites. They fled England to avoid persecution, but they exiled anyone who disagreed with their views once they arrived. In the Salem Witch Trials, they hung the undesirables of the town and the political atmosphere was one of the same of the McCarthy era of sweeping, general accusations with little to no evidence, resulting in a loss of life. Nobody died in the McCarthy era, but it was parallel to the political hysteria of 1692. The disgusting subjects of history often repeat themselves with a new coat of paint. Judge Danforth of the Salem Witch Trials came back disguised in a senator costume. Racism, although still rampant, put on a new suit and became anti-gay sentiment. When it all comes down to it, gay marriage should not be a question of politics and religion, but a question of basic human rights. Why should we restrict? Why? Why carry the ignorance on?
Jon Bolduc is a junior at WHS. He has been writing since he can remember and aspires to be a novelist or a journalist when he is older.
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