By Eileen McNamara, Globe Columnist Ralph Martin was thinking a lot about Alan Keyes this week. No, Suffolk's liberal, black, Republican district attorney was not in New Hampshire stumping for the conservative, black, Republican presidential aspirant. We expect to hear hate-mongering in taverns or in the streets. We are quick to denounce intolerance in the ignorant and uneducated, but we don't do such a good job when the person is wearing a suit,'' says the district attorney. Her attackers allegedly targeted the African immigrant because she often held hands with her female friends, a common practice among schoolgirls in her homeland, but apparently a signal to suspicious classmates that she might be gay.
Intolerance is intolerance.
We did everything together, went to parties, ran together on the streets. I was in my freshman or sophomore year at Brandeis when he told me he was gay. It made me confront my own prejudices. It is really no different than race. If we applaud an antigay sentiment in a political campaign, we are endorsing intolerance as a legitimate viewpoint.