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Equality is about being informed, respectful of others

I agree that support for same-sex marriage “is not a fair comparison” to racial equality because there is no concrete evidence that people are born homosexual (“Inequality of marriage should continue”; Oct 4, online).

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Seow Chow Wei

I agree that support for same-sex marriage “is not a fair comparison” to racial equality because there is no concrete evidence that people are born homosexual (“Inequality of marriage should continue”; Oct 4, online).

African Americans, for example, have been offended when support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality has been likened to the fight for racial equality.

Ernest Owens, a black gay man, has pleaded with American LGBT supporters to stop comparing the fight for LGBT rights to the civil rights movement because it is historically and culturally inaccurate, and offensive to gay people of colour.

Clarence Henderson, the African-American chairman of the North Carolina Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission has also found such a comparison insulting.

In terms of skin colour, there is scientific evidence that people are born with it. If both parents are from a certain race, the child will be of that race.

The same goes for eye colour. If one identical twin has blue eyes, the other would also have blue eyes nearly always. As identical twins tend to genetically share the same eye and skin colours, we can say these are inborn.

Science does not support the same conclusion when it comes to homosexuality. The largest twin study to date found that identical twins do not share the same homosexual orientation most of the time.

Hence, because homosexuality is not an inborn trait like skin colour, we cannot say that people are born gay in the same way they are born with a certain skin colour.

It is therefore inappropriate and disrespectful to equate LGBT equality with racial equality.

It is good to support the equal treatment of all persons. It is important for supporters of equality, however, to be well informed and respectful of everyone else, so that true equality that benefits all of society is upheld.

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