THE TRUTH ABOUT GAY COUPLES

When you think of a lesbian or gay person, what do you picture in your mind?
When you use the words "gay lifestyle" what is it that you're really saying?

Unfortunately, when right wing Christians think of lesbian or gay people, this is what they see:

or

Instead of this:

or

And when those same people talk about the "gay lifestyle," this is what they're talking about:

or

Instead of this:

or

I apologize for the graphic presentation, but it's the truth. We're not people to them, we're the images you see above. This is the reason that new education secretary Margaret Spellings, in her letter to PBS concerning the "Postcards From Buster" that featured a child of a lesbian couple in Vermont, said, "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the lifestyles portrayed in the episode." What's worse is they will fight to the end to make sure that most Americans keep those images in the forefront of their minds when they think about homosexual people.

When Joe and Anna Redstate think about homosexual couples marrying, these are the images they conjure up. Is it any wonder that they think it's wrong and shouldn't be allowed?

I'm not saying that there aren't gays that live like that, but they're in the same minority as heterosexuals who live much the same way. Ordinary people need to understand being homosexual is not about sex. It's about living lives very similar to their own. But the Christina right won't allow us to tell our story. They know what will happen if ordinary people replace those scary images with images like this:

This is the Riesner/Pike family that would have appeared on the discarded episode of "Buster." The family was in the background as the film concentrated on 11 year old Emma Riesner (top left). The show was meant to teach children about where maple sugar comes from, but that's not how it was portrayed by the religious right. Nor did any of the hundreds of articles that appeared about the show carry the above picture. Neither the right nor the press wants to show the truth about gay families. They look too normal.

Finally, how do you think 11 year old Emma felt about her show being canceled? Put yourself into her shoes for a minute. You know how kids anticipate and how they can't wait for things. Imagine for a minute how this destroyed her world. Would you care to hear it in her own words?

"I was pretty upset when the show was canceled, because I was very excited about it," Emma said in a recent telephone interview from her home in Vermont. "I know some people don't like gays and lesbians because they think they are bad people. That's just a stereotype and it's kind of hurtful. I don't think people should think of us as very different. We are just the same except we have two moms."

This is what the right is doing to our families. And what did president Bush say about his education secretary's remarks concerning showing a lesbian family on television? "Studies have shown that the ideal is where a child is raised in a married family with a man and a woman." Yet experts agree that there is no scientific evidence that children raised by gay couples fare any worse than those raised in more traditional households.

But that hasn't stopped right wing legislators from spewing forth their anti-gay marriage propaganda and formulating bills to outlaw the adoption of children in states across the country.

It makes me sick.