All Should Have Rights

I Eator.Thetfew' As a concerned Ann Arbor citizen who ■was once proud to be living in a city that ■was together enough to have a human rights ordinance, I find the attitude of ■ the Rubaiyat, the mayor, the Republican ■ council members and some other citi■ zens in this city reprehensible. Mayor ■ Stevenson, it is prefectly obvious to me I and other enlightened people in this comI munity that neither you nor your followI ers on council nor your pólice chief support the human rights ordinance (if, in fact, you've paid enough attention to it to even know what it says - Pólice Chief Krasny admitted that he hadn't). It is ! obvious from the Rubiayat incident (in which there were at least 13 witnesses), and from many other incidents of pólice inaction in cases involving the rights, and even the safety of gay people, that the sexual preferehce portion of that ordinance will not be enforced by the city. Mr. Mayor, neither you nor your meó liór'WyfênBfDr. Wilson (letters to The Ann Arbor News) realize the nature of the discrimination nor the extent of harassment which gay people suffer every day. Gay people have a right to be able to live an open and honest existence just as heterosexuals do. Why is it that straight people are not accused of "publicly flaunting (as one "educated" critic (Dr. Wilson) put it) or "forcing their ideas on others" when they dance together? Yes, some people are concerned with feeding their families and the energy crisis - those are problems we are all facing these days - but some of us, due to intolerant, narrowminded insensitive people like M. Wolfe and Dr. Wilson, have a much more basic and pressing problem which they must face every day of their lives - struggling to get a heterosexually dominated society to recognize a right which is morally theirs I - to be able to express freely and openly I I and unashamed - as you do - their 1 uality and love. It's about time that the Republicanl majority in this city comes to realize, I like the Human Rights Party does, that I this city is made up not of garbage cans I and sewers, but of people with very 1 man needs and problems. The Rubaiyat I incident has only served to demónstrate I the need for a city - and its government I - which is more receptive to its people I - ALL its people. I