Rep. Rhodes,
I must confess that I no longer live at the address I gave. I was born and raised in Claremont my entire adolescence, but left as soon as I got old enough for NYC. The reason I left was because I'm gay, and being in NH is incredibly rough when you're gay.
Recently I joined Dan Savage's It Gets Better Campaign, my video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... and in turn ended up being featured in the NY Times, which is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10...
If you have time I would be honored if you watched my video.
I'm contacting you today because of the Union Leader, my uncle's newspaper. Yes, Joe is my uncle, technically great uncle. I saw what he published today and was absolutely disgusted. He has the freedom of the press, he can do whatever he wants, but to sit there and try to feign niceties, "not anti-gay", repulses me on every level.
You can not sit there and preach that gay love is inherently inferior to straight love and wonder why kids are being bullied, literally, to death. Joe has helped dehumanize the gay population, and it's people like him and the vitriol they spew that made my rearing so incredibly difficult. Grade school bullies are enabled by their parent's opinions, and societies morality as a whole, when you silently attack the LGBT population at the ballot box you are a bully, a weak one.
I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you speaking out on this issue. Don't let him off the hook, keep pressing him for answers. What he's doing is so archaic it's hard to believe his piece was published in 2010.
If you need any help with LGBT issues I'm available, I've begun to speak at schools because it is an issue that means the world to me. There is nothing I care more about than equality for everyone, and fighting this kind of hate speech is such an important part of it.
Thank you Rep. Hodes, I wish there was more of you.
Mr. Calvin StowellNew
Calvin's moving "It Gets Better" video is below the fold.