Dear Tell All: Your letter writer Relieved expressed his gratitude to Wisconsin voters for showing a spirit of tolerance toward gay people in the Nov. 6 election ("Gays Up, Haters Down," 11/15/2012). Wisconsinites voted for Tammy Baldwin, making her the first openly gay U.S. senator. We voted down Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, who oppose equal rights for gay people.
I want to express my gratitude as well, from a woman's perspective. I was terrified about what would happen to my right to control my own body if Romney and Ryan had prevailed. At the vice presidential debate, the moderator asked Ryan if women who supported abortion rights had anything to worry about if Romney was elected president. Ryan essentially said "yes." And his reasoning was that his Catholic faith tells him that abortion is wrong. Well, fine - let him try to talk his wife out of having an abortion if she gets pregnant. But why should his faith affect what I do with my body?
We see what it's like for women living under fundamentalism in countries ruled by Islamists. Luckily, Romney and Ryan won't have a chance to impose their own religious fundamentalism on American women. Thanks, Wisconsin voters!
Phew
Dear Tell All: You referred to Relieved's letter as "eloquently put," and suggested the writer consider a run for public office. Let's hope not! Not everyone who disagrees with Relieved's position is a "homophobe," a "hater," or a "regressive force."
A truly eloquent writer would have advanced his position without calling his political opponents "homophobes" four times in a five-paragraph letter. Perhaps it never dawned on Relieved that American voters are a good deal more nuanced than he gives them credit for. By his "eloquence," every Democrat voted for Barack Obama because he's black and for Tammy Baldwin because she's gay. I didn't vote for Obama or Baldwin. I must be a racist homophobe!
Spare me, please. I did not vote for Obama because his economic policies are awful. I did not vote for Baldwin because she's stridently in favor of a nationalized health care system.
Decent Fellow
