To all of those students who called me ignorant because I didn’t wear jeans on Jeans Day, how dare you. Just because I didn’t wear jeans doesn’t make me ignorant of your “alternative” lifestyle—homosexuality. No, I am not gay, but I had a brother who was gay. And he was very open about it. And he slept around. And he caught AIDS. And he died from it two years ago. So believe me, I know what it means to be gay. So again, just because I didn’t wear jeans hardly makes me ignorant of you.

Let me tell you why I choose not to wear jeans on Jeans Day. Because homosexuality is wrong, period. You go against the laws of man, nature, and God. During creation, God gave man charge over all of the other creatures he had made. He did this as a way of showing that human life is to be respected and revered above animal life. God also gave to man woman to be with and pro-create with. He then gave man a law to live by. This law was, and still is, that man should never violate the special status or sanctity of what He had created. Homosexuality violates this sanctity. I will not participate or show support for anyone or anything that takes part in this violation.

I have too much reverence for God’s law to join in simply for the sake of some physical pleasure. While you may not realize it, it was made all too clear to me two years ago, the punishment for the abominable violation of this law is death.

My democratic principles tell me I must tolerate you and let you live as you so choose. So I shall. But a higher principle tells me never to accept you or become one of you, so I never will. I would expect you to at least show me the same courtesy, that being tolerance. While you don’t have to accept me or become like me, at least understand me, for I understand you, you ignorant person you.

Gary T. Stittgen

senior

political science