PRESS: Offended by stories, photos

I’ve never written a letter to the forum even though I’m in my 70s and lived in Coeur d’Alene all my life. Let me say right off the bat I am not anti-gay, anti-lesbian, anti-cross dressing or anti- same-sex marriage. The recent articles in the Coeur d’Alene Press have compelled me to write and state my opinion.

In the last six weeks, the Coeur d’Alene Press has written articles and shown pictures of [1] Cross dressers in full costume reading to our children at our public library, [2] A lesbian couple with their “child” at our Fourth of July parade. Of the thousands of families at the parade, The Press picked a lesbian couple to photograph and interview, [3] a homosexual man from a foreign country talk about how he met his lover from Coeur d’Alene and came here to live with him.

I find having alternative lifestyles shoved in my face very offensive. What people do in their private lives is up to them, but I don’t want to read about it or look at pictures of them in my newspaper.

This is Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, not San Francisco or California. I don’t want our town to be a platform or gathering place like California is for diversity, deviance and alternative lifestyles. If the Coeur d’Alene Press wants this, count me out. I’ll drop my subscription immediately. I’m willing to bet the reporter who selected these stories is from California. If I’m wrong, he should move there.

PATRICIA J. TURNER

Coeur d’Alene