Letters: Demonizing gays? Blame Christians & Republicans

WHILE Charles A. Williams III wrote an insightful op-ed about bullying, he didn't touch on the two main reasons bullying of gay people and children has been tolerated and has increased in recent years.

The first is religion, mostly Christians. Baptists and Catholics have made gay people the object of scorn, ridicule and attack for many years.

But the main reason has been the Republican Party. They have used religion combined with politics to make an art of attacking gay people.

Never have we seen hate for gay people promoted so heavily as we saw under the George W. Bush administration. Karl Rove fanned the hatred, and Bush, along with the Republican Party, pushed it to the limit.

Pennsylvania had Rick Santorum running around like Chicken Little screaming that gay people are bringing about the end of civilized society and were a menace to children and marriage. Nationally, we had Mitt Romney base his attempt to become president on the backs of gay people, echoing the words of Santorum.

Even before the Bush administration used gays as social bogeymen, Republicans like Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, Anita Bryant and Phyllis Schlafly promoted hatred of gay people.

Randolph Husava, Philadelphia