Dear editor:
I would like to make several comments in response to Sean Parkinson's Aug. 19 letter, “There’s little support for the queer community in Niagara.”
The stated conclusion in the headline is that there's little support for the queer community in Niagara, which raises the separate question of whether this is based on any recognized analysis.
The letter by Miss Pride Niagara 2014 is obviously biased (as would be expected), and her conclusions are, in my opinion, completely wrong.
I think that in most cases church and traditional lifestyle principles, including those of marriage, are much the same thing and it is the LGBTQ lifestyle that differs. However, I suspect that the majority of those privileged NOTL residents really don't care one way or the other.
Again, common solidarity with the minority groups is brought up by the letter writer obviously to provide support and sympathy for her arguments.
Then, of course, there is the never-ending reference to hatefulness (called intolerance) which is dismissed as being untrue by most people and is simply used as a weapon against those who are being targeted.
The letter also speaks of the eloquence of the experts mentioned in the July 29, 2021, issue of The Lake Report.
However, in my opinion, she is again showing her bias as this is far from the truth. Just read their quoted language; it seems to me difficult to argue in support of eloquence.
The reference to defensiveness is exactly as previously reported in letters to the editor and is what I would consider a normal reaction to the aggressiveness in the arrogant suggestion that public property can be used permanently to endorse a minority agenda. (What other reaction would be expected?)
Again reference is made to those minorities who are oppressed and the LGBTQ community standing in solidarity with them, but as far as I can see the queer community in NOTL is far from oppressed and seems to enjoy an inclusive and affluent lifestyle, both economically and socially, and is hardly in need of liberation, as suggested by Miss Pride Niagara.
The lifestyle of the community is publicly accepted by most people without question, but an attempt at forced public and visible endorsement of the lifestyle by the majority is another matter that is not readily accepted .
These comments are not intended as a condemnation of any lifestyle at all, (which is not my right to make anyway) but they are a criticism of dishonesty that to me is quite apparent in this debate and leads to false allegations that people are anti-LGBTQ and are hateful when this is simply not the case.
Derek Collins
NOTL