The Arapahoe Pinnacle is not precisely unaccustomed to getting the occasional piece of feedback from an unhappy reader. While not common, we expect some backlash on pieces about, say, Trump or gun control. Or even our parking lot situational satire.

Something I have not experienced in my admittedly short tenure as Editor-in-Chief are Letters to the Editor.

And oh my, has my introduction been interesting. I believe the customary method of handling Letters to the Editor includes either ignoring them or printing them as they’re written, for later rebuttal by other readers. But I’m going to claim a sort of editor’s prerogative. While I will share what Wayne Lela, founder of the Heterosexuals Organized for A Moral Environment (HOME, which I will not be linking here) has to say, I’m going to be interrupting him from time to time.

Because I don’t personally believe that anyone who founded what the Southern Poverty Law Center has certified as an active hate group necessarily deserves a feedback-free platform from which to vomit his indefensible mental detritus.

Says Lela,

“Colorado Democrats just took a huge step backwards by electing the first openly homosexual governor.  Thinking people have known for centuries that homosexual activity is clearly immoral (Plato, for example, perceptively taught that over two thousand years ago) and a bad legal precedent.  Many other intellectuals over the years have also deprecated homosexual activity.   It’s relatively easy to point out serious flaws in all the arguments heterophobic homosexuals use to try to rationalize homosexual activity. So, to put voluntary, aberrant, homosexual activity on the same level as, for examples, involuntary skin color or age is obviously absurd and is downright offensive to many people of color.”

First, I’d like to congratulate Jared Polis on his election and I’d like to thank every Democrat, Independent and moderate Republican who helped put him in office and who voted for Colorado’s #bluewave.

Second, I want to take exception to Lela’s perception of himself as a thinking person. His random aside about Plato is just odd, given the philosophers waffling on the subject. When he wasn’t harping on natural law, Plato regularly held up male homosexuality as an ideal. That the philosopher recognized women were at least necessary for procreation isn’t a ringing endorsement of the ideals of a 21^st century bigot.

Let’s talk for a second about the word that Microsoft Word doesn’t recognize here, because it’s not real: heterophobic. Wayne (can I call you Wayne? I’m going to call you Wayne) I’d like for us to consider a moment why actual thinking people acknowledge homophobia as a genuine phenomenon. You know how you’re upset that we’ve elected our first gay governor? There’s a hint in there somewhere, isn’t there, Wayne? Marginalized people are beginning to escape the homogenous white male Christian theocratic society you feel is ideal.

Also, we’re not sorry about it, and our strength will only increase. Buckle up, Wayne.

Last thought on this paragraph: reconsider in the future your desire to speak over or for people of color. None of us need to learn about what is offensive to people of color from an old white guy.

“The whole movement to normalize the abnormal is a real threat to the psychological well-being of our nation.  It may surprise you that some colleges like Harvard now have officially recognized student groups devoted to promoting the acceptance of BDSM—sexually deviant bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism. That’s right. If you are a psychologically disturbed student who gets sexual thrills from hurting people, some colleges like Harvard now have groups for you! Is that bizarre or is that bizarre.”

What? Oh no! Adults can gather with other adults with similar interests? Quelle horreur! Well, Wayne, if it helps, I can’t find any active links to Harvard’s student-led BDSM group. You had to reach into 2012 to find something to be pissed off about, but at least it’s not before the Common Era this time. No longer, apparently, do college students on those hallowed grounds gather to order pizza and talk about ball-gags. Score one for your team!

“Those paying attention can see that the “logic” of heterophobic homosexuals is rapidly leading this society down a slippery slope to a more aberrant, disordered, and irrational society. Legal polygamy is coming soon. Maybe down the line we’ll see “marriage” between straight and homosexual consenting-adult incestuous people! Whoopee! Anyone who thinks this is progress is deluding him/herself.”

I’m getting a little concerned about your obsession with other people’s sex lives, Wayne.

“These are truly strange times we live in, where people whose values are upside-down and backward actually think they are “progressive” while they are trying to take us back over 2000 years to the ancient Greek and Roman times when relatively primitive and ignorant people irrationally valued homosexual activity.  Unreal.”

Wayne, just a moment ago you were lauding the ideals of Plato from 2000 years ago. Not that your perception of his ideals were necessarily relevant or even correct, but be consistent.

“Sincerely, Wayne Lela.”

Thanks Wayne. I hope this scratched that itch you have, that need for attention no matter it be positive or negative. But I want to end on this: your time is over. Generation X doesn’t share your views. My generation, the Millennials, deeply disagree with everything you’ve offered here. The generation following mine, the iGen? They’ve gone beyond viewing you as an aberration. You’re anachronistic. A throwback to a bygone epoch.

And I just want to rub in a little what you’ve already learned, Wayne.

We vastly outnumber you. And we vote. And we’re raising the generation that won’t even recognize your ideals as viable.

Have a pleasant day, Wayne.