Millions of television viewers who watched the Democratic National Convention of 1972 were shocked to see the advocates of homosexuality speaking during precious prime—time hours. The occasion was the discussion of the party platform, and the plank was euphemistically called, “the right to be different*” Although it was not adopted, many people think that its public and serious consideration was one factor in Nixon’s landslide victory over McGovern.
Homosexuals broke into the national news again recently when they made a strenuous effort to persuade the New York City Council to pass a bill guaranteeing their right to what was called “sexual orientation*” When the New York voters discovered that the City Council was taking this bill seriously, they rose up in mighty wrath and made sure that it was defeated.
Do we want to grant homosexuals the right to teach our children in schools and colleges? Do we want to grant homosexuals the right to “marry” and therefore to qualify for joint income tax and property benefits enjoyed by husbands and wives? Do we want to grant homosexuals the right to adopt children? The New York City Council said no, and most Americans would emphatically agree.
To use the law to extend such rights to homosexuals would be a grave interference with the rights of the rest of our citizens. It would interfere with our right to have a country in which the family is recognized, protected and encouraged as the basic unit of society. It would interfere with the right of an adoptable child to be placed in a home with a mother and a father.
It would interfere with the right of parents to have their children taught by teachers who respect the moral law. Surely the right of parents to control the education of their children is a right of a higher order than any alleged right of, say, the two college-educated lesbian members of the Symbionese Liberation Army to teach our young people.
College officials have a right to decide that dormitories are no place for homosexuals. The firemen, who constantly risk their lives in our behalf, should have the right to make a judgment that their close living and working conditions make a homosexual co-worker intolerable.
Are homosexuals being cheated by society? They are already getting a free ride in Social Security. Our entire Social Security system is built on a generation of young people constantly entering the labor force in order to provide retirement benefits for the senior citizens at the other end. The homosexuals refuse to have children, yet they want to be taken care of in their declining years by Social Security taxes paid by young workers who are other people’s children.
Marriage as an institution is under attack today from many sides. We can be glad that the New York City Council went on record for the family and against the promoters of immoral lifestyles.
