In his Super Tuesday column of May 25, 2015, Wyatt Smitherman describes the “pure diamond of normal marriage–marriage between a man and a woman, created for the right reasons.” He compares it to the “flawed stone” of “hybrid” partnerships (that is, same-sex partnerships), which, he says, “create caricatures of families based on conditional love and confused desires.”

I was surprised to find, in the pages of a respected and influential publication at my very own place of work, the notion that my queer family is a “caricature” of a family–and couched in the metaphors of purity vs. contamination so beloved by eugenics, no less.

This is not argument, but aggression, for which ignorance isn’t much of an excuse. It’s a shame that The Daily chose to enshrine it under the heading of serious debate.

Nina Schloesser Tárano

Lecturer, Creative Writing Program, English Department