I want to thank The Forecaster for taking a bit of space to allow Bryan Dench, running for Falmouth Town Council, to explain why he wrote his 2010 letter regarding the legalization of gay marriage and his views on “homosexual relations.” Particularly interesting was his statement that he supports following the law.

Dench’s letter stated that the truth behind the law on hate crimes was actually aimed at “normalizing and validating homosexual behavior, and overturning the clear consensus for all human history that marriage is between people of the opposite sex.” Imagine my surprise. According to the statues of the state of Maine, a hate crime is defined as any unlawful action designed to frighten, harm, injure, intimidate, or harass an individual, in whole or part, because of bias motivation against the actual or perceived race, religion, ethnic background, or sexual orientation of the victim.

This law saved my life. Little did I know that according to Dench, the hate crime law is part of “a long process of indoctrinating people, especially children, to believe that homosexual behaviors are ‘normal’.”

Dench’s letter continued: “Not long ago homosexual behavior was defined as abnormal and deviant by mental health professionals. Have the facts changed, or just their ideology?”

We are all certainly entitled to our personal beliefs and opinions on any matter of policies, politics, religion, morality. However, I certainly cannot envision having a Town Councilor who thinks I’m not “normal” or “just as good” – or even perhaps “deviant” – because I am gay.

Julie Motherwell
Falmouth