Dear Editor,
While some may commend minority groups like sexual and racial minorities for attempting to stand up for their rights, the current attempt of the homosexual lobby to force three of Jamaica's free-to-air broadcasters to air a particular advertisement is making me uncomfortable.
It is not that I have anything against these and other minorities wanting to secure their rights. What have me worried is the attempt to curtail the right of anybody, especially people like me who provide a public service, refusing service.
While I think, in the case of the gay community, the state has more important business to look after than enforcing laws that prevent them living the lives they want, I don't think the state has any right to tell public service providers like me, or anybody else, what I can and can't refuse.
This is not just a gay issue. I remember when I used to go to high school; there was a Rastafarian child who was refused admission - simply because he was a Rastafarian. I didn't have anything personal against Rastafarians and I must confess that I admired that child for being bold, but I did not like the idea that, in the end, my school was forced to admit him.
If I am an extreme atheist and I own a newspaper, for example, and I don't want any pro-Christian advertisement to be published in my paper, why should I be forced to do so? Why should I be seen as backward if I refuse?
Let's say that I am a rich white conservative landlord with a huge apartment complex and I don't want too many black or Rastafarian or gay tenants. Why should I be forced to admit them? Why should I be vilified as a bigot because I urged them to go elsewhere?
What if I am a gay owner of a gay television station and a church wants to run an advertisement condemning the gay lifestyle and I refuse? What if I am then forced by the court to run that ad?
As I public service provider myself, this court case is making me uncomfortable because the day may come when I may want to say no a potential client and I may be forced to say yes! Gays may be elated by the current case in the courts, but they must remember that the same knife that sticks sheep also sticks goat.
Michael A. Dingwall
Kingston
I still must be able to say no
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While some may commend minority groups like sexual and racial minorities for attempting to stand up for their rights, the current attempt of the homosexual lobby to force three of Jamaica's free-to-air broadcasters to air a particular advertisement is making me uncomfortable.
It is not that I have anything against these and other minorities wanting to secure their rights. What have me worried is the attempt to curtail the right of anybody, especially people like me who provide a public service, refusing service.
While I think, in the case of the gay community, the state has more important business to look after than enforcing laws that prevent them living the lives they want, I don't think the state has any right to tell public service providers like me, or anybody else, what I can and can't refuse.
This is not just a gay issue. I remember when I used to go to high school; there was a Rastafarian child who was refused admission - simply because he was a Rastafarian. I didn't have anything personal against Rastafarians and I must confess that I admired that child for being bold, but I did not like the idea that, in the end, my school was forced to admit him.
If I am an extreme atheist and I own a newspaper, for example, and I don't want any pro-Christian advertisement to be published in my paper, why should I be forced to do so? Why should I be seen as backward if I refuse?
Let's say that I am a rich white conservative landlord with a huge apartment complex and I don't want too many black or Rastafarian or gay tenants. Why should I be forced to admit them? Why should I be vilified as a bigot because I urged them to go elsewhere?
What if I am a gay owner of a gay television station and a church wants to run an advertisement condemning the gay lifestyle and I refuse? What if I am then forced by the court to run that ad?
As I public service provider myself, this court case is making me uncomfortable because the day may come when I may want to say no a potential client and I may be forced to say yes! Gays may be elated by the current case in the courts, but they must remember that the same knife that sticks sheep also sticks goat.
Michael A. Dingwall
Kingston
I still must be able to say no
-->