Letters

Ignorance justifies Coming Out Week

The depth of Amir Amirkhani’s ignorance amazes me
(“Campus
contributes to wrong behavior,” Daily Bruin, Oct. 18). I
hardly know where to begin.

His article is so rife with fear, hatred and reactionary
moralizing that it sickens me. Like the long line of bigots who
precede him, he makes generalizations and accusations with little
or nothing to back them up. His papier-mâché arguments
are so specious and insular that I’d be surprised if this
armchair moralist knows even one homosexual. Frankly, I’m
dismayed that the editors would print such tripe.

Like Amirkhani, I am a graduate student here at UCLA. Like him,
I am a heterosexual and have reaped the rewards of a loving
relationship. Unlike Amirkhani, however, I do not presume to tell
other people what will make them happy, nor do I believe, as he
apparently does, that more freedom, sexual or otherwise, is bad.
Quite the contrary, our freedom and our diversity are what make us
strong.

His accusation that homosexuality threatens to destroy, or as he
puts it “shatter the basis” of the family unit is
downright offensive. This argument presumes that homosexuals are
incapable of forming relationships that are as valid and loving as
their heterosexual counterparts. This just isn’t true. A
member of my own nuclear family is bisexual and she is one of the
most wonderful, loving and centered people I know. I have no doubt
that she will be a fantastic mother some day, regardless of the
gender of her partner. The last time I checked, the basis of the
family unit was love, not sex.

His claim that homosexuality is a threat to society’s
ability to regenerate is plainly absurd. Look around, aren’t
six billion people enough? Where is this threat to our
continuation?

Especially ridiculous is Amirkhani’s charge that National
Coming Out Week advertises homosexuality. Sexual orientation is not
a brand of soap or diet cola. He has totally missed the point.

Homosexuality, I imagine, is just like heterosexuality ““
you feel it in your gut and that’s that. I don’t
believe for a second that any amount of “advertising”
could make someone reverse these kinds of feelings.

The point of Coming Out Week is to let people who have these
feelings feel safe, to present a positive, visible group so that
questioning people feel less frightened, and to help them realize
their own potential as a complete human being. The point of Coming
Out Week is to stand against the fear and ignorance that Amirkhani
personifies.

He’s right about one thing though. UCLA does not represent
his beliefs. I sure hope not anyway.

Robert Ferrini Ph.D candidate Microbiology, Immunology
and Molecular genetics

Gay community is its own family

I was very disappointed when I read Amir Amirkhani’s
article (“Campus
contributes to wrong behavior,” Daily Bruin, Oct. 18)
responding to National Coming Out Week, and the portrayal of
homosexuality on campus.

Amirkhani, through many generalizations and assumptions about
the rest of society, sees his heterosexist viewpoint as
“right” and “natural.” While I have issues
with many of Amirkhani’s statements, it is his views on
family that have really spurred me to respond.

Amirkhani seems particularly distraught about how homosexual
relationships affect the traditional idea of family which society
has lead him to believe is “natural.” Personally, I
have found the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community,
particularly on the UCLA campus, to be more of a family than
anything else I have known.

At a time when my traditional, nuclear family is crumbling
around me, I have a loving support network, most of which is made
up of my queer friends. The LGBT community if often very welcoming
and caring toward one another, especially in times of need, such
when our more traditional families, the ones that Amirkhani is
promoting as “the base unit in our community,” are
failing us.

From personal experience I can testify that the queer family
which I created for myself has meant just as much, and sometimes
more, to me than the family I was born into. And how can anyone say
that someone else’s love is less valid or meaningful than
their own? To do so is the ultimate in arrogance.

The truth is, the “family values” argument against
homosexuality was constructed by social conservatives around World
War II in response to the large number of men and women who came
out during the war. This new order threatened what they saw as
right, and forced our country into a downward spiral of strict
gender roles and sexual repression, which Amirkhani is clearly the
proud result of.

While many people began thinking differently about sex in the
’60s and ’70s, Amirkhani and those who think like him
are stuck in the falsely created world of sexual oppression which
limits their understanding of themselves and the world around them.
Speaking as one of the organizers of National Coming Out Week, that
is the reason NCOW exists.

The LGBT community’s major contribution to our society
thus far has been the stimulation of new thought and understanding
of how sex affects us. Let’s not lose the progress
we’ve made in the past 50 years.

Adam Simon Theater

Amirkhani’s views not popular belief

Amir Amirkhani’s article (“Campus
contributes to wrong behavior,” Daily Bruin, Oct. 18) is
by far the most offensive and ill-informed Viewpoint article
I’ve seen this quarter.

Normally I would reserve that statement for something written by
an ultra-conservative columnist, but Amirkhani’s article
really takes the cake. I could go on and on about how politically
incorrect he is, how ignorant his views are and how any of his
arguments lack any sort of logic and rationale, but I’ll
avoid making that the focus .

Instead, I want to dispel something Amirkhani thinks to be true
““ that his views are popular.

Amirkhani seems to think that everyone shares his ideas yet
chooses to remain silent rather than protesting National Coming Out
Week.

The reality is that the majority of students are comfortable
with the queer community on campus. Queer students are fortunate
that UCLA’s student population is accepting of them, and that
Amirkhani and his kind are in the minority.

I want Amirkhani and his wife to look around the next time
they’re here, because UCLA has a very large queer population,
and I can guarantee him that they will pass dozens of proud queer
individuals. They’re not the downfall of the family unit nor
the demise of “regeneration” as Amirkhani asserts. They
are proud individuals that find love with others of the same sex.
The exact same love that he feels for his wife is being felt by
queer students right now, and it’s about time he realized
it.

He states that “it is our responsibility to educate our
children, family and friends about the irregularities that such
habits will bring to our society.” I agree with him, but not
on what constitutes “irregularities.”

I find Amirkhani a gross irregularity for his bigoted views that
he assumes are normal. We should address these bigoted
irregularities, and educate our friends and children so that they
can avoid falling into the trap of hate and delusion. Otherwise,
such habits will bring the demise of our society ““ and
Amirkhani should realize that.

Steven P. Waldon Fourth-year Political
science