This is a rebuttal to an article written by Ben Hester, titled “Same-sex debate unfair, dishonest” published April 16.

Former Secretary of State, Colin Powell supported equal rights for the LGBTQ community by saying, “I know a lot of friends who are gay in partnerships with loved ones, and they are as stable a family as my family is. I don’t see any reason not to say that they should be able to get married.” Well said, Mr. Powell, well said.
Oh, look, I’ve encountered another Republican who is in support. Dick Cheney, former vice president, said we should progress the country by allowing same-sex couples to live together under the protection of law. That’s very nice of you, Mr. Cheney.
According to United Methodist pastor for almost 30 years, Jimmy Creech, references in the Bible in regards to same-gender sexual behavior do not condemn the nature of the behavior, but the passages condemn the “violence, idolatry and exploitation related to the behavior.”
Wait, there’s more. I’m not done wearing these shoes.
Mark Osler, professor of law at the University of St. Thomas and Christian, said what he sees in the Bible’s accounts of Jesus and his followers is an insistence that we don’t have the moral authority to deny others of the institutions like marriage.
“It is not our place, it seems, to sort out who should be denied a bond with God and the Holy Spirit of the kind that we find through baptism, communion and marriage,” he said.
Alright, time for me to take off these shoes now. They were a little tight and overly polished.
“But no!” you say. These are “natural laws” like the author references. How could this be? It’s not natural to be homosexual! Now that I think about it, weren’t there eugenics scientists who believed white superiority was natural?
In the discussion of same-sex marriage, the author brings up the idea of looking at how same-sex marriage affects communities. Since we live in a time where people refuse to research and look up and data and figures, they might not know that studies have been done that show the sexual orientation of a parent has no harm on how well children “fare in school, on cognitive tests and in terms of their emotional development,” according to The Washington Post.
It’s cool to have an opinion. I get that. But when your opinion marginalizes a group of people and dehumanizes the struggle found in the LGBTQ community, of course people are going to be angry. Of course you’re going to be called a bigot.
On the terms of this fabled “homosexual agenda” the author refers to, the efforts of queer Americans and their allies seeking to gain equal rights under the law are shaped as some evil plot to take down America. It’s easy to sit there when you have every single right of an American to not understand what it feels like to be treated as a second-class citizen.
Having rights is so unfair, right? I’ll tell you what’s unfair.
Even with the Fair Housing Act, same-sex couples are still discriminated against and have to pay more taxes when they buy or sell a home, and if one partner dies, the other could find herself of himself without a home.
It’s unfair that 18 states do not have laws stating that crimes against the LGBTQ community are not hate crimes.
Eleven states do not allow joint adoptions, so that lesbian couple that wants to give a child a good home, you’re out of luck. Sorry, move along.
It’s unfair that laws had to be created to rid of healthcare discrimination against sexual and gender identity because a partner couldn’t visit their dying life-long love.
LGBTQ youth are dying, kicked out of homes and committing suicide at higher rates than heterosexual youth.
What’s unfair is institutionalized intolerance. That’s what I would say is really unfair.