/r Page 4--Saturday, April 8,_1978-The Michigan Daily juDia CAmI#r se + QD IN I LLGB6AL S IlGIL A 11ON cAsE -U,.5. SUROAC COL)R Is gayness born or made? Is it something you learn to become aware of? This is a real simple question,'but the answer totally influences our approach to gayness. Society says it's something you choose. Science has historically said gayness is made. If it is something you choose, then it is something you learn and can therefore unlearn. If it is something you choose, then your religion can say you made an immoral choice, your parents can wonder what they did to cause you to choose that way, and psychology can put forth all sorts of theories to explain it. THE HUMAN race has a long, long history of erroneously ex- plaining the unexplainable; that the world must be flat is an old example - that UFO's are really only swamp gas is a more recent ine. Did you know that there is a psychosis caused by the third stage of syphilis and that before they figured out the connection, they had a psychodynamic theory to explain it? And how could we ever forget Freud's theory of the "mature vaginal" vs. "immature clitoral" orgasm for women. His theory was accepted scientific dogma until Masters and Johnson By Mimi Brown Imagine that Anita Bryant had said I have a right not to have any left- handed teachers exposed to my children because I don 't want my children to become left-handed.' came along. (There are some who still treat it as accepted scientific dogma.) Many accepted beliefs have changed within my lifetime con- cerning war, and the environ- ment, and the integrity of the presidency. The accepted beliefs that have changed about women and blacks are too numerous to mention. That gayness is learned is an accepted belief. That's why we're all so afraid of it - we think it's contagious like a cold. (I would have used leprosy but it, too, is contrary to long accepted belief, is not contagious.) There is no proof that it is learned. As it is merely a sexual preference, IF YOU are born left-handed, you are born into a right-handed world that equates different with "bad". The left hand used to be considered the hand of the devil and left-handed people were bur- ned as witches. It is only recently that we have stopped trying to make left-handed people right- handed by tying their left hand behind them. But no matter how much you tried to change them, a left- handed person still instinctively reached for things with their left hand. The startling similarities make this a very useful analogy. And it's fun to play with; just sub- stitute left-handed for gay in any statement about gayness. To illustrate the absurdity; imagine that Anita Bryant had said "I have a right not to have any left- handed teachers exposed to my children because I don't want my children to become left-handed". BUT SPEAKING of Anita brings up the theological argument based on writings from the Bible. Millions of people think of Billy Graham as an authority, and Billy Graham thinks gayness is a sin. The Wisconsin Synod Lutherans think playing cards is a sin. What's a "sin"? Being left- handed used to be considered a sin. Anyway, I'm not going to argue with them, even though I could. I won't change their minds with my logic, and they won't change my mind with their Biblical quotes. Besides, gays have to change their thinking first. After all, white people don't tell black people that black is beautiful - black people told each other - then white people. The time has come to re-think our assumptions about gayness. Mimi Brown, a resident of Ann Arbor since 1970, is a private therapist. Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, M1 48109 Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 150 News Phone: 764-0552 Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan maybe it handed. is like being born left- N/S Why U.S. ju E VENTS SURROUNDING the mur- der of a young man in Houston have reached appalling ends. Three former city policemen have been sentenced to a year in prison for "conspiring to deprive someone of their civil rights." That is the lawyers' terminology for what amounts to the arresting, beating and drowning of Joe Torres by the three officers last May. Judge Ross Sterling disregarded the maximum possible sentence for such a crime by police officers - life in prison - and instead handeddown suspended ten-year sentences with five-year probations. Sterling's reasoning was simple: he felt the officers would never find them- selves in the same situation again, and therefore would never deprive someone of their civil rights again. Trouble is, the judge didn't seem to want to acknowledge the fact that the first deprivation by the police was a fatal one for Torres. It seems funny, too, that Sterling didn't provide in his decision that the defendants can never be re-employed as police officers. A protest staged following the judge's sentencing highlighted the fact that there were probably some strong racial influences on the policemens' alarmingly light jail terms. When the U.S. Department of Justice heard the facts on the case, they asked Judge Sterling to lift the suspended sen- tences, arguing that he was wrong in thinking he had the discretion to suspend the 10-year prison terms in the first place. stice is a mess Justice officials admit that their logic is legally unprecedented, but say that moral reasons, if not legal ones, should ensure that the officers be punished more severely. Lawyers for the police officers have assailed the Justice Department request, and Sterling himself has not said what he will 'do. If the judge does not volun- tarily lift the suspensions, the Justice Department will try to appeal its request to higher courts. That may take years. It seems that anyone would be able to see that murder is murder - whether it be ornamented in legal ter- ms or not. But the murderers of Joe Torres are free right now, and probably will be so for a long time. oboe Mtcbgoan :49at1 NEW YORK - We have today a new form of inflation, say the researchers, a type as resistant to our conventional efforts as a brand new strainof influenza. The new inflation,dthey say, has infected our food, housing, health and energy markets. A NEW LAYER of middlemen add to the food prices, land and financing costs add to housing, insurance costs ado to health ex- penses, and price-fixing by car- tels adds to energy costs. That, in a one-sentence cap- sule, is the contention of a private research group, the Exploratory Project for Economic Alter- natives. To which one might justifiably ask: What else is new? Inflation is a chameleon, changing colors in an attempt to blend unnoticed into the existing economic environment. But it is still the same animal - a lizard, that is, a greedy, devouring one. Why settle for so short a list, when one can go on and on describing the changing colors. For example: " Politics. Give the voters everything they want - and more. Assume they do not know Chameleon economics By John Cunniff EDITORIAL STAFF Editors-in-chief GREGG KRUPA DAVID GOODMANI Managing Editors EILEEN DALEYL.....EYanagnngiEdersr .. Universty LANI JORDAN...................................... City LINDAwILLCOX .. . eatures/Projects BARBARA ZAHS ................................. Personnel KEN PARSIGIAN Editorial Page Director BOB ROSENBAUM what they need, so do not wait for them to ask. Provide them with costly services - and then quietly slip the bill to them. " Government regulation. Make it more and more difficult to do business. Load down in- dustry with a maze of obstacles. And then watch industry pass on the added costs to their customers. " Environment. Insist on more refined, complex products, while simultaneously clamping down on the resulting environmental damage. Come down hard on in- dustry; change the world over- night. " Perfection. Demand the very best in hospital care, no matter how much overlapping technological gadgetry is in- volved. Demand the perfect car. "If we can safely go to the moon, we can make a safe car, too." " Luxury. Do not settle for a functional home; your neighbor does not. Assert yourself, show you are a person to be reckoned with, prove you can afford the best; an extra bath, game room, swimming pool. " Credit. Live on it. Nothing wrong with that, so long as you do not exceed your ability to pay. But -why stop there? You only live once; if you can get the money, grab it. Worry about repaying later. " Retirement. Do not wait until you are 65 to retire. Make the company agree to give you a full pension after 20 years. Then you will be able to lie around in- a hammock for decades. If you live that long. " Sue. Get a good lawyer. Go after the insurance companyor the company th-it made the gadget. Claim your life span has been shortened by their negligen- ce. Live comfortably off the proceeds. x Protect. Make sure no existing companies are driven out of business by fierce com- petition. Instead, write your congressman and demand that the government subsidize local industry, no matter how inef- ficient. Why continue - the list is en- dless. The colors change with the times, but you might say the times really do not change that much. Today's list will be mat- ched by tomorrow's, as it was by yesterday's. Sunday Magazine Editors PATTY MONTEMURRI' Arts Editors OwE TOM O'CONNELL EN GLEIBERMAN John analyst Press. Cunniff is business for The Associated MIKE TAYLOR SPORTS STAFF BOB MILLER................... Sports Editor PAUL CAMPBELL................Executive Sports Editor ERN19 DUNBAR................... Executive Sports Editor HENRY ENGELHARDT.............. Executive Sports Editor RICK MADDOCK .................Executive Sports Editor CUB SCHWARTZ...................... Executive Sports Editor LETTERS TO THE DAILY: League To The Daily: I am surprised at the uncritica plan on judges is fh 1 acceptance by The Daily of the ms of service or provides a choice - League of Women Voters position by lot. The League has yet to of- regarding their petiton to place fer a substantive explanation for on the November, 1978 ballot a these oddities. constitutional amendment -Avern Cohn regarding the selection of Court Detroit of Appeals judges and Supreme legal aid Court justices.T What the League did not tell To The Ilaily: Wu hat th Legue i mote p- As a student who was involved you is that there is more op- in a two-year tenant-laridlord position than simply the dispute which started off as a Democratic party to their court-ordered injunction for proposition. Whether the appoin- repairs, progressed into a rent tment of high court judges be strike and class action suit, tur- good or bad, the plan being ned into an eviction trial and pushed by the League is fatally /finally resulted in a favorable flawed in two important respects. settlement, I find myself totally First, the plan limits the term bewildered upon hearing the of service of Court of Appeals begilderd o n hay be judges, and Supreme Court legal aid to students may be cut justices to three terms each. This off. means that a judge of the Court of Without the help of Campus Appeals can serve a maximum of Legal Aid, my housemates and I eighteen years. If the plan were would never have stood a chance in existence today, one-third of against our landlord, Trony the judges of the Court of Appeals Associates, who spent thousands .. .. .-. f dollars in l1e~a1 fees trving t awed hoodlum landlords of this town. (I've leased from both good and bad landlords here.) I urge all students,.to vote YES on the 10th, 11th and 12th for the MSA funding proposal. i. -Cheri Adinoff Ann Arbor l0 'mindless attacks' To The Daily: Unden the subheading "more garbage," April 6th's Editorial page carried two letters concer ning the latest modern, metallic sculpture next to the art museum. The following day, page ten carried a Bilinsky photo of the sculpture juxtaposed with skewed wooden construction barriers over the puckish cap- tion, "Which is which?" COMPLAINT PEPT, V-1