Matt Simons’ letter in Monday’s Alligator absolutely infuriated me. It was so full of fallacies and ignorant homophobic assumptions that I don’t know where to begin.
I am a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and served proudly in two combat tours of duty. The law of averages tells you that I would have had to have served with a number of men who identify themselves as homosexual. If they were, I had no clue. Their sexual preference did not make them any less of a Marine, or for that matter, any less of a hero for answering the call to duty — something Simmons obviously knows nothing about.
For Simons to say that 99.9 percent of the military don’t want homosexuals in its ranks is absolutely outrageous, inflammatory and absurd. One has to assume by lack of any specific details that Simmons neither served in the military nor received an education past the eighth grade.
For the Alligator to even bother printing this rubbish boggles the mind. In addition, it disturbs me that in the year 2010, we still have individuals who think the way Simons does. What is even scarier is how he obviously aligns himself with the conservative/republican movement.
I am truly embarrassed that this person is a part of humanity and actually has a say in society. Please do us all a favor and refrain from ever printing his letters again so that he may disappear into the backwoods from which he came.
Correction (2/10/10):
This letter is a response to the letter "Alligator op-ed section is too liberal, indecent." The author of that article had his name misspelled as Simmons. His last name is Simons. This response letter has been corrected to reflect the author's intent, based on the Alligator's error.
