The "yuck factor" ('97)

This letter of mine was published in the Honolulu Advertiser in June 1997:

In his June 1 commentary on same-sex marriage, Chuck Sh-veev gives an incisive analysis of respect and acceptance and their foe, the 'yuck factor':

"Straights generally cannot bear the thought of
a similarity between their own expressions of
intimacy -- and those of gays ... (which straights
regard) with primitive visceral repugnance....
Whatever its origin, however it gets sustained,
this yuck factor is not going away."

I agree that this is at the heart of the matter, but I disagree that it is inevitable. It must be recognized and fought as a "social disease," something spread from one person to another.

No legislation can affect it, but there is one remedy, as every openly gay person can attest: coming out. Working one-on-one, just as the yuck factor itself, coming out can replace yuck with respect and acceptance.