This letter to the editor helps us think about how brave Roy Gotta was to publish his article in a national magazine as early as he did.
Dear Editor:
Okay, let’s cut to the chase about gays in square dancing. This could also apply to the other minorities mentioned. The objection to dancing with any vocal minority is not an objection to the distinguishing characteristics that sets that minority apart. The objection is to the flaunting, taunting and rudeness that some of these individuals seem to feel they must exhibit concerning their minority orientation.
Of course homosexuals have been square dancing with heterosexuals, probably from the very beginning, and heterosexuals never knew the difference. And that, Mr. Gotta (and ladies and gentlemen in square dancing) is precisely the point! We didn’t know the difference because the difference was not being flaunted in our faces.
A square dance is not a political platform from which to launch your particular social or political agenda. There is history and tradition in square dancing, and there are rules and codes of dress and conduct. We don’t allow drunk people to impose their “rules” on us. If we define “Friendship Set to Music” in terms of every special interest group out there being allowed to demand we accept all their friends, rules and music without regard to our own, then square dancing is doomed. Mr. Gotta needs to review the 10 Commandments of Square Dancing and be reminded that they apply to the minorities as well as to the majority.
Happy square dancing,
Larry L. Dunn, DDS
Waycross, GA
