Interesting E-mail

Remember the website I created on UTA's server last spring? Apparently it's still there, and it has been generating some interesting responses. While most have been overwhelmingly supportive, three have been . . . well, lets just say less than supportive. Another fascinating facet to those three e-mails is the fact that they came from a military installation. Yes, you read that correctly, an officer of the United States Military has taken time to tell me just how sick and wrong I am.

Hmmm, I wonder at this juncture, when public support of the military is so crucial regardless of one's stand on the war itself or its Commander in Chief, if the military could stand the possibly negative publicity that could be generated by the conduct of two of its officers? Well, here goes nothing . . .

I decided to post the e-mails I have received concerning my website, both positive and negative. Unfortunately, the first two e-mails I received from a Defense Logisitics Agency officer (or maybe he was a cadet, judging by his deplorable grammatical skills in his first message) I deleted. Suffice it to say that it was full of profanity, bible-thumping "you're going to hell" speak, and name-calling. Isn't it funny how people in the wrong always resort to name-calling when they don't have a solid basis for their position in a disagreement. I guess that's why they join the military; "Military Intelligence" is an oxymoron for a reason.

Now, I don't mean to go bashing the military as a whole; I have known some very open-minded, fair, reasonable, and intelligent people who served in our nation's armed forces. It's just that the bad examples seem to have the loudest voices. So, without further ado, I will now share with you those e-mails. You'll notice the positive ones are last. I decided I wanted the post to end on a good note.

Dear Jimmy,

You're an ass-clown. I read your essay and yes, you're definitely a University of Texas Arlington graduate. You speak of change but still yet you cannot accept the waves of change that are taking place in our society even today. If it weren't for you and your interest groups applying pressure to the APA, you would still be classified as a disorder. You don't need to be recognized as a married couple because that is seen as a covenant between man and God. By the way, you're not a minority to be held in the same regards as those of minority racial groups. We aren't born with the choice to be Black, Asian, etc, etc. But however, you do have a choice of what kind of sex you have (if you choose to have any at all for that matter). So just because you and Tim decide to bugger each other doesn't make you a minority with special rights.

Good luck in your endeavors,

William Lee

Interesting, no? I wonder if his commanding officer would be interested in reading it . . .

On to the positive ones.

Dear James and Tim,

My name is S. I was drawn to your page from a discussion board at Advocate.com. I too am a gay man living in Texas. I am almost 40 years old and have been out of the closet for nearly 24 years. I can definitely identify with the pain of being an "also ran" in the relationship recognition game. Though I am currently single, let's just say I have been there, done that.

Twenty-four years ago, when I came out, the idea of marriage was a long way off and to comfort ourselves, we fooled ourselves into believing that we didn't want to assimilate to heterosexual mores. As I said, we were fooling ourselves and we had to in order to make it easier to live day to day. Then the AIDS crisis kicked in. Although I cannot speak for others of my "era," I can say that, for me, it sparked the need to be equal, to have every opportunity for love and life that heterosexuals have always had, without question. I became a charter member of both Queer Nation and ACT-UP in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (where I was living at the time). I have always been HIV-, but that doesn't mean that the discrimination and the lack of action taken where HIV is concerned didn't effect me. As with HIV, silence = death with marriage for same sex couples as well.

I commend what you are doing and I am willing to underwrite the cost of putting this page on a server once you graduate in May. It isn't all that expensive and this is such an important story that you have and you are telling it with dignity and eloquence in terms with which everyone should be able to identify.

Sincerely,

S. (Full Name Witheld For Privacy)

Hello Mr. James Yeager,

Typing that is kind of weird since it is my name too. I stumbled
across your site while doing a search under my name for some
previous internet writing I had posted.

Although I am happily married to my wife of 10 years, after reading
your essay, we do share some of the same burdens. I am a gun owner
and while it may not seem to be connected to your plight we law abiding
gun owners are seen as a plague in much the same way as same sex
marriages even though we harm no one.

I have an attitude of letting people do what they want as long as long
as it doesn't adversely affect the people around them. You lifestyle
is of no concern to me and I wish you and Tim much happiness.

Good luck to you.



James Yeager - President
Tactical Response Inc.

That last one was a little surreal . . .

(one more will appear here as soon as I locate a copy of it)


Dear Mr. Yeager,

I just saw the article you wrote, called Modern Times. I wanted to applaud you for it. I hope all the right people get a chance to read it. I can't say I know exactly what you're going through. I am bisexual, but I'm in a relationship with a male. It sickens me to think of all the discrimination going on right now. I do wish you the best of luck. Oh, and I love the picture you have of the two of you on the website! You guys look so great together.

Sincerely,
Amber

That was the first one we received. I realized putting an e-mail link on that website was opening the door to both good and bad e-mail, but I must say I was pleseantly surprised to find most were messages of support. Please comment on this post, I would like to know everyone's feedback.