A Reminder of Our Hidden Minorities

I want to make a call to this community, not to censor itself, but to

be aware of how it uses its voice.  I have personally heard far too

many stories of my my gay peers cracking open their closet door only

see a negative Technician article or a homophobic statement in the

Free Expression Tunnel before they go back into hiding.  For a

community as large and diverse as ours, this is as upsetting as it is

unacceptable.  Any sort of anti-gay talk, public or private,

inevitably contributes to N.C. States less than flawless reputation in

the area of gay acceptance.

The reason to keep this in mind is simple: Gay people exist.  There

are people on this campus and thinking of joining our campus community

who are gay, whether they like it or not.  I can almost guarantee that

nearly anyone reading this, regardless of his/her social, religious,

or academic background, knows someone who is secretly or openly gay.

When anti-gay comments and unsupported arguments against gay rights

are made, an attack is made against a gay person’s right to feel safe

in the N.C. State community.

The reality is that gay people are a group who often need not suffer

another blow.  Many of my friends have suffered years of hiding,

lying, avoiding, and just generally suffering, all for the sake of

something they feel they have no control over.  Many risk have risked

or could risk being disowned by their families and cut off financially

for their sexual orientation alone.

Under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, our closeted gay ROTC members on campus

constantly risk being discharged from what many of them consider to be

a second family.  Additionally, ROTC members can be, like Sara

Isaacson at UNC,  liable to repay thousands of dollars in scholarships

if they are found to be gay.  I know several gay members of our

nation’s military, all of whom love their jobs, and all of them are

willing to publicly reject their sexuality for the sake of service.  I

urge all readers who support the military to come see Lt. Dan Choi, an

Army Arabic translator discharged under DADT, in Stewart on October

12th.  Lt. Choi knows how it hurts to hide for years for the sake of

keeping a job he loves.

For those of you who think you don’t know anyone gay, I urge you look

to the people around you to see what it means to hide yourself for the

sake of having friends.

Chris Williams

junior, computer science