McIlheran's anti-gay disorder

A letter in the Journal Sentinel needs no further comment:

Anti-gay comments appalling
In the time that I have lived in the Milwaukee area, I've been amazed by the frequency with which Journal Sentinel editorial columnist Patrick McIlheran attacks the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community in his printed columns and online blog posts.

It's almost reached the level of a compulsion - in the first five months of 2010 alone, I counted at least 14 separate occasions on which the LGBT community has come into McIlheran's crosshairs. I am absolutely appalled that the Journal Sentinel continues to allow him a public forum for his homophobic rantings.

If, rather than his belief in the "disorder" of a particular sexual orientation (which is not, as McIlheran flippantly refers to it, some kind of "preference"), he expressed in his columns the belief that, for example, women were created to be submissive and subservient to men, or that black people are inferior to white people, McIlheran would be roundly and justifiably condemned and his columns would in all likelihood be yanked from publication. But because homophobia is still an acceptable form of bigotry in large segments of society and certain religious traditions, he is given a free pass.

Homophobic diatribes like McIlheran's belong in the comments section of tea party blogs, not splashed all over the opinion pages and blog space of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

John Becker
Shorewood