This is a response to a letter to the editor by Grand Forks City Council member Tyrone Grandstrand on Page 5 in the Oct. 25, 2013, edition of The Dakota Student. I feel Mr. Grandstrand is not being objective in his article. His article speaks of injustice toward LGBTQA people who are told they cannot move into a home because the landlord or seller doesn’t like who they are. Mr. Grandstrand explains LGBTQA people are more than just constituents, they are our friends, neighbors, family members, co-workers, and are just as vital to the community as anyone else.

I agree with Mr. Grandstrand that LGBT people are as important and vital as anyone in a community. Native Americans and other minorities are important and vital, women and children are important and vital and men, too, are important and vital. Every person is unique and necessary in the vast scheme of things. However, we are human; we are imperfect, and the LGBTQA movement has missed three vital points in their bid for equality.

First, LGBTQA individuals have always had equal rights under the law. They cannot be denied access to restaurants, restrooms, public transportation, public education, housing or any other opportunity under the law.

Second, how would anyone know a person’s sexual orientation unless they flaunted it? In my lifetime, I have never come across a rental contract that asks me my sexual orientation. So when Mr. Grandstrand says “For lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, this [being denied housing] is all too often a crushing reality,” well, I guess I would like to see proof. How does he know this happens often? Without doing any research, I would bet it happens rarely, if ever.

Third and maybe most important, the homosexual act is a perversion of what sex was intended for and that is procreation. So, when Mr. Grandstrand says LGBTQA people have done nothing wrong, that is debatable. Certainly, all of Scripture teaches the unacceptability of homosexual behavior, and homosexuality does go against the natural design of our environment.

Mr. Grandstrand is right that LGBTQA people should not be discriminated against. However, the LGBTQA community must realize that when you start adding ethics and discussions of “right and wrong” to the homosexual debate, the homosexual act leans toward the “wrong” end of things.

Mr. Grandstrand said the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance “reflects our values of fairness and respect.” But until our laws also reflect ethics, they will be hollow reflections of what our Creator intended. Fairness to the LGBTQA community is right and just. But the underlying assumption that the LGBTQA movement is about equal rights is a lie.

The movement is about getting society to agree that homosexuality is OK; and unfortunately, it is not.

Susan Lund

Grand Forks citizen