July 20, 1995

Dear C.C.,

Thanks for your new address. Good choice. Marin County is full of wonders, with Pt. Reyes right at the top. At one time I fantasized about living in Pt. Reyes Station and working for the Pt. Reyes Light. David Mitchell, who edits and publishes the paper, wrote the stories that blew the top off Synanon back at the beginning of the 1980s.

That was the Bible-quoting drug rehabilitation group whose leaders put rattlesnakes in the mailboxes of the enemies. I think half his Pulitzer Prize was for journalism and half for guts.

I'm for guts. It's hard sometimes to do what you believe in when all the messages from outside are to keep the peace and watch your back. But there is no peace or security in looking the other way.

I've been talking to a man who recently was fired from his job because he's a homosexual. It feels odd to be writing those words, the injustice in them crying out to be nullified.

There it is, our final acceptable prejudice. People who love people of the same sex count for less than the rest of us, at least in most places in the country.

There is, of course, more to the story. Anonymous letters were circulated accusing the company of employing homosexuals and promoting a competitor that has "Christian" values. Some things occurred that the employer took to be harassment from whomever it is that hates homosexuals so much. That prompted the firing.

The man has not yet talked to me for publication. He was reticent at first, saying: "I'm not a flag-waving homosexual." Then he went to the other media here and in St. Louis. I was a bit dumbfounded, but people do act inexplicably under stress.

The thing is, he can't sue to get his job back. In Missouri, only Kansas City and St. Louis prohibit employment discrimination against people due to sexual orientation. The situation is the same in most of the United States.

So it's OK to discriminate against people because they're homosexuals or lesbians?, I asked the woman in charge of enforcing Missouri's human rights laws. "I wouldn't say it's OK," she said. "It's not against the law."

Do homosexuals deserve special rights? No. Just the same rights everyone else has.

I hear one of the city councilmen is thinking about introducing an ordinance that would ban discrimination in employment on the basis of sexual orientation. If he has the guts, he'd better be prepared to fight the monster of prejudice that lurks among the flowers inside our well-fenced yards.

Sharpened epithets and biblical epistles will be hurled at him and anyone who takes his side. As if God would demean any of his creation.

The fear of this way of being will take mountains of strength and love to overcome.

Some of my nieces are in town this week. We went to see "Pocahantas," a movie teaching that differences -- of opinion, of heritage and, I would add, even of sexual preference -- are natural.

Differences are necessary for souls seeking fulfillment and make us richer as a people. They are not threats.

These little angels understood that. When will we?

Love, Sam

~Sam Blackwell is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.