Antigay letter sent to Kentucky town residents

A 24-page booklet published by the antigay Family Research Council has been sent to about 75% of the homes in Covington, Ky., a city of about 50,000 residents, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. The mailing, coordinated by a group called the Citizens for Community Values, is in opposition to a proposed law that would outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. CCV members say the law is unnecessary and would "normalize" homosexuality. The Covington city council is scheduled to consider the proposal within the next two weeks. The FRC brochure states that homosexuality "has serious emotional and physical dangers associated with it." "The very people who've been pushing such ordinances in Covington and in towns across America tell us that these human rights ordinances that include sexual orientation are NOT really about discrimination," Phil Burress, president of CCV, wrote in a letter accompanying the brochure. "According to these activists, such ordinances are about 'normalizing' homosexual behavior.... They are about forcing all of us to accept homosexual behavior as normal, healthy, and natural. They are about capturing the minds of the next generation--our children! And they are intended to be one important step toward legalizing same-sex marriages in Kentucky and across the nation." But Covington resident Dean Forster, cochairman of the Northern Kentucky Fairness Alliance, disagrees. "This ordinance has nothing to do with legalizing same-sex marriages in Kentucky or any state in the union," he said. "It ultimately is directed at discrimination, which does happen. Matthew Shepard was killed [in Wyoming]. The military does not let people in who are openly gay. And testimony offered at public hearings in Covington indicates that [gay] people have been discriminated against."