From the Mailbox

Received a nice email yesterday from a reader and thought I would share.

Subject: Message from a White, Heterosexual Republican…

Dear Andy,

First off, I would like to point out that this is not hate mail. Much on the contrary, I was actually writing to you just to express my feelings and opinions about your towleroad site.

I don’t remember how exactly I first ran across your site a few months back, more than likely it was due to a friend. But surprisingly (even to myself), I’ve actually been keeping up to date with it, checking for your updates every few weeks. As you can tell from the subject of this email, I’m not gay, and yes, I am a republican. Usually this would automatically label me as being some old fashioned guy who’s afraid of change (I’m 21 by the way). But honestly, I have to applaud the work you do in reporting the “other side” of the issues.

In today’s society, I feel that the powers that be try to hide this truth or to avoid it completely by casting it into the shadows. Many of the articles and stories you reference are of things I’ve never heard of or seen before, but certainly should have. And I feel that since coming to your site, I’m more fully aware of what is going on in the country today. Now while I myself am not gay, I do have friends that are and I certainly don’t try to oppress or ridicule them for their own personal preference.

Your site has taught me so many things, and has made me see both sides of the issues plaguing us in world events. One, for instance, is gay marriage. I know about the whole constitutional amendment and I hear about certain countries and states that are still trying to deny that opportunity everyday, but honestly, this seems to run much deeper than just marriage.

Even though marriage may just be some piece of paper, or a record indication some kind of union, by not allowing gay marriage, it seems that the government is denying, shall I say, some god given rights to it’s own citizens. These people aren’t terrorists; on the contrary, a larger and larger percent of our population is the gay community. Denying the benefits that come with marriage sounds more unconstitutional than gay marriage is itself (which isn’t unconstitutional to begin with).

I know this is getting a bit long, and I don’t blame you if you don’t read this, but I just figured I’d let you know that there’s at least one republican out there who’s sympathetic to your point of view.”