Ironically, in Michael Patrick’s article “Sexuality not so divisive,” division is made in the form of the author’s dichotomy of individuals as “gay or normal.” It appalls me to read an article in which the author has the temerity to declare what is “normal.”

He states that “many homosexuals take on a flamboyant lifestyle filled with drug use and promiscuous sex, and the media helps perpetuate the idea that this is the normal lifestyle of all gay men and women.”

Incongruous and self-asserting, this sentence, with no facts, takes the liberty of assumption.  Patrick is at fault for precisely what he attributes to “the media” and he must remember he is part of the media.  In turn the article only helps fallacies linger (in the media and in our lives and minds) about gays in America.

He says “normalcy doesn’t have to be the antithesis of gay, but right now that’s what it is becoming.” How is normalcy “becoming” the antithesis of homosexuality?  Is this article saying Americans have just started to polarize individuals by sexual preference?

Patrick calls for a gay individual to stand up with “common ideals” to show that gay people are the same as straight people, though in actuality these individuals are countless among us.  The author pontificates his own warped ideals and tries to pass them off as “common” and correct.

I find it indecent of the author to ask gays to give up what he calls a “ridiculous lifestyle.” If we give into his notion then we give ourselves up to systematic bigotry; we demand others to change when in actuality we must change our false ideas of what is normal.

Many “normal” people with “common ideals and common decency” have rightly taken offense to this article.

Mitchell Galloway is a junior majoring in English.