Brody's Notes... Suburban Chicago College Paper Publishes Anti-Gay Letter by SPLC Recognised Hate Group

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) NOV 4 | The student run College of DuPage newspaper, The Courier, located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois in the western suburban Chicago area, published a letter on October 29th that has sparked considerable controversy and outrage not only on its campus but nationally. Written by Wayne Lela, titular head of an organisation called Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment, (H.O.M.E.) based in neighboring Downers Grove, IL., the letter is entitled Homosexuality Isn't A Human Right.

In his letter, Lela says:

"The central, critical issue is... Is homosexual activity a human right? The answer in short form, is clearly NO. It's not a human right anymore than sex between a father and his consenting adult son or daughter is a human right; or any more than certain other sexually aberrant acts involving consenting adults."

Lela then compares the current political climate of acceptance and equality to the decline and fall of the ancient Greeks and Romans. 

Lela's organisation has been recognised by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group with strong ties to Naperville, Illinois based Americans For Truth About Homosexuality and linked to the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, (NARTH), a group whose alleged "scientific" proof and therapeutic research has been largely discredited by the American Physiological Association and other professional groups. 
A reader of the New York City based LGBT political news blog Towleroad forwarded a copy of the Courier's page where Lela's letter had been published. Towleroad editor & founder Andy Towle published the letter yesterday along with the email address of the editor of The Courier yesterday which in turn generated hundreds of letters and emails to the paper.
In an email response sent to Towle as reported on by The Advocate, Courier editor, Vikaas Shanker, wrote:

"The Courier will print an editorial in this Friday’s issue (Nov. 5) which will address the decision to print Mr. Lela’s letter in the Oct. 29 issue. Due to space issues, we will not be able to print all letters to the editor, but we will print the petition sent to us and some letters from the college community. Most other letters will go on the web in a viewable PDF format. All letters are subject to editing for grammar, style, language, length and libel as stated in our Courier policy."

In a comment left at Towleroad, a reader wrote:

I wrote the following letter to their editor, the college president and board, and copied the Chicago Tribune and Sun Times' letters-to-the-editor:

===================================

Dear President Breuder, Chairman Wessel, Vice Chairman Carlin, Secretary Svoboda, Board Members Sandy Kim, Allison O’Donnell, Kim Savage, Joseph Wozniak, Editor Shanker and Others at College of DuPage:

In response to: http://www.cod.edu/courier/editorial.html

As somebody who attended C.O.D. as part of my college experience, I have to admit that I was shocked and saddened by your college newspaper's choice to run an opinion piece from a member of a fringe, anti-homosexual group that seems to build its talking points from members' fears and 4th grade understanding of human anatomy. A quick internet search for Wayne Lela will reveal in a variety of news articles and postings that show he is not only on the wrong side of scientific consensus, but on the wrong side of common sense in the United States.

I think it's comical that this letter comes as a response to pros/cons for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Not only do plenty of openly gay & lesbian soldiers serve successfully and without incident in other military bodies around the world, it has been proven in studies that for most people in the military, sexuality is a non-issue. I think more servicemen and women are worried about whether or not their fellow solider would fight and die next to them in a time of crisis and less about what a person chooses to do in their private life. All gays and lesbians want is the ability to serve openly without fear of military discharge to protect freedoms like the 1st amendment, which Mr. Lela uses to spread misinformation and toxic language. Language that if D.A.D.T was repealed, many gays and lesbians would go to war and die to protect. This is not the government telling anyone what to believe or what is right or wrong, it is simply about treating everyone the same in the eyes of the law who is a citizen and who has a vested interest in serving our country.

A person's personal beliefs on morality are their own. I think personally it's immoral for Wayne Lela to travel the country to spew hate under the pretense of morality or religion. I think it's immoral to use religion to subjugate women or justify violence. I think it's immoral to use the Bible against gay people, because we're certainly not using anymore it to justify slavery, the treatment of women as property, the divine commandments to kill the women and children of our enemies in battle, or the abominations of shellfish or mixing fabrics. These are all parts of the Bible that sensible people have moved beyond as a mark of the cultural times in which the Bible was written. I believe in time, people will also find no issue with loving, committed gay relationships because as the Bible says, God created everything and it was good.

To borrow a phrase from Wayne's article, the "hard truth" is that being a homosexual is as natural as being a heterosexual. It is mirrored in nature, it has roots in genetics, it runs in families (see studies on gay siblings), and the common factor between all of us (gay or straight) is that we are all human, and deserving of rights. There is a reason that in the 1970's, homosexuality was no longer classified as a disorder by the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association. Because it's not. It's not new, it has been around as long as people have been. Rational, scientific and non-ignorant people who know and interact with homosexuals on a daily basis can tell that we're just like anyone else. I think that's the biggest scandal of all, and it is true with all the different people of the world: we're more alike than different.

Also the biggest flaw in Wayne's logic is trying to infer or make some causal relationship between homosexuality and the collapse of Greek or Roman society. Perhaps if they'd known back then that all the people that they were trying to conquer or fight were just like them, maybe they would have fostered a society of tolerance, acceptance and education that would have made their civilizations last longer. Most of the wars started in the world at that time were based on the "morality" and "spiritual authority" of each civilization's god figure that convinced them they had the right to murder and pillage in the name of their religion.

Lastly, I think it's poor timing and compassionless to run this during a time where so many families have lost their children to suicide. The negative and uninformed messages that you chose to run in your newspaper are exactly the kinds of communication that children internalize and over time, can make them feel hopeless.

I truly hope you publish an educated and level-headed response to Mr. Lela's article. If nothing else, a retraction or statement from the college that shows the institution does not endorse this kind of thinly-veiled hate speech and printed it only to spark conversation.

Thanks for your time,

Matthew Gore

Lela is no stranger to adversarial circumstances. In an incident in April of 2007, Lela and his followers ran into serious adversarial impromptu student protests over their activities handing out anti-Gay literature on the campus of the University of Chicago. The University's student newspaper, The Maroon, reported:

A small group of students formed an impromptu protest against the efforts of Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment (HOME) members yesterday afternoon in front of Hull Gate. Two members of the organization, which is based in Downers Grove, Illinois, caught the attention of gay rights supporters as they handed out flyers to passing students, alleging pro-gay agenda bias in the media and denouncing homosexual behavior. The HOME members alleged that a media conspiracy to support a homosexual agenda infringed on their right to free speech.

“If the media was doing its job, I wouldn’t be out here,” said HOME activist Wayne Lela, adding that several of his letters to editors of media outlets have not been published due to what he believed was their support of the gay agenda. “There’s censorship on this issue,” he said.

Wayne Lela Photo By Chris Salata  The Maroon Newspaper 

In an interview published on the NARTH website, Lela explains his procedures and reasons for his campus activities:

Our team sets up an information table on campus, identifying ourselves with a banner reading "The Uncensored Truth About Homosexuality." We proceed to offer material on gay issues, as well as an opportunity for passersby to question us--parrying whatever unfriendly comments which come our way. Surprisingly, our experience has been that faculty members actually outdo students in unfriendliness.

We are often asked, "What type of material do you distribute to stimulate discussion?" As a rule, we have available three pieces: one sheet is devoted to the health risks associated with homosexual behavior. A second deals with causes of homosexuality, life expectancy, domestic violence, and relationship stability. It also addresses income, education, and occupational status of homosexuals, specifically because those three categories form the legal grounds for the addition of new anti-discrimination laws--and we point out that because all of these categories are above the national average, there is no legal basis for singling out homosexuals as a special protected class. We also point out the impact on our culture due to the tragic loss of talented Americans because of the AIDS epidemic. The third piece is NARTH's "Myths" brochure.

Those who would like to set up a college information table will experience some trepidation and, inevitably, frustration--but they should keep in mind that their very presence, as well as the truth they offer, can actually break the spell cast over our nation's younger generation by the incessant gay-activist propaganda of misrepresentation and half-truths. Breaking the one-sided stranglehold on information is a great service to both students and faculty--particularly to those young men and women struggling with same-sex attraction--and for those who are open to listening, the information we offer benefits body, mind, and spirit.

Another Towleroad reader, Peggy Brown, had this to say:

I am a happy hetersexual who has family and friends that are both hetersexual and homosexual. I do not see why people just cannot mind their own business, accept people for what they are loving, kind, hardworking people that give back to society. What difference should it make what sexual orientation a person is, it has nothing to do with the type of person they are and it does not make them a good or bad person. I do not discuss my bedroom activities nor do I want to hear another's sexual escapades - that is private. We should all learn to mind our own business, keep our own side of the street clean and leave other good citizens alone. Everyone needs to respect the fact that everyone has an opinion and belief system and we need to learn to respectively agree to disagree. There is no right or wrong here just a difference of beliefs. No one has the right to tell another person how and what to believe in. No one.