To the editor:
Conway’s Argument Falls Short Although Chad Conway claimed to provide some facts to argue that “MMS is not the appropriate place to promote LGBTQ,” his argument falls short in several ways.
Good arguments need premises that are true, relevant to the conclusion, and that provide adequate grounds for the conclusion. Conway’s argument fails all three conditions.
Regarding truth, first, as James Lozinski and Anthony Studemann pointed out, almost all of the statistics Conway uses are old, false, or unverifiable.
Second, it mischaracterizes the flag display to say the LGBTQ flag promoted anything. Were the countries represented by other flags “promoted”? “Recognized” is a more accurate term.
Third, HIV can be transmitted by unsafe sexual activity, not one’s sexual orientation or identity. Unsafe sexual activity is a behavior issue, not an orientation or identity issue.
Fourth, Conway assumes that students are choosing to be LGBTQ and need to be provided with the statistics he cites to make an informed choice. However, the LGBTQ people I know didn’t choose their sexual orientation and identity any more than the heterosexuals I know chose theirs.
In short, key premises are not true, thus making Conway’s argument a bad one.
However, even if these premises were true, his argument would still be bad because they are irrelevant, and irrelevant premises cannot provide adequate grounds for a conclusion.
For example, even if only 1.6% of the US population identifies as gay, how is that relevant?
Should a country not have been represented in the flag display if a student immigrated from that country but only 1.6% of the U.S. population did?
We should let facts and reason be our guide. Because Conway’s argument is short on both, it must be rejected.
Regardless of whether you supported the presence of the LGBTQ flag, I hope you agree that youth suicide is tragic and that poor mental health is a problem that needs to be addressed.
According to the Trevor Project, an American nonprofit focused on suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ youth, results of their 2021 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health indicated that “42% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year….” Additionally, “94% of LGBTQ youth reported that recent politics negatively impacted their mental health.”
If you care about young people yet are tempted to attack LGBTQ symbols and people, please show some compassion and think about these statistics before you act.
Brett Gaul
Marshall
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August 14, 2021 at 12:04PM
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