In the last issue of The Maroon, Loyola junior Nate Straight wrote a letter to the editor about the front-page picture of the Gay Easter Parade.

“It is not now, nor will it ever be, a time for celebration of the sin that [Jesus] came to deliver us from. Shame on you for parading homosexuality in conjunction with your celebration of the Easter holiday,” he wrote.

First, I imagine he has received plenty of criticism by now. Then again, I’m confused why he thinks The Maroon should be held to these Christian ideals. It’s a newspaper.

Normally, I wouldn’t deem such a letter worthy of comment, but it was recently brought to my attention that Mr. Straight claims to be a libertarian (I love Thefacebook.com).

Let me explain what exactly the libertarian position is on homosexuality. First, libertarians believe marriage should be left to the churches, and if there must be a civil union for insurance or tax reasons or whatever, gays must not be excluded. The anti-homosexual religions have used their power to oppress and obstruct gay rights at every opportunity. Politically, and Mr. Straight may agree with me on this, gays have been treated unfairly and should be applauded for fighting back.

Second, gays have been shunned as outcasts and sinners by people like himself. Many use the church to fight groups on a political level. If the battleground is moved to a church, gays will fight at the church. Christians certainly have the right to say what they wish, but can you blame gays for self-defense? Can you blame The Maroon for giving them a little press? Would we have had Riverboat if the morality of dancing wasn’t defended by such heroes as Kevin Bacon of “Footloose”?

The libertarian movement accepts anyone’s voice as long as they don’t aggress against another. No one is forcing Christians to wear the rainbow flag. Further, giving press to a group defending its rights against oppressors sounds newsworthy to me. In fact, a group doing just about anything but aggressing against another sounds libertarian.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly states that homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law (CCC, 2357), yet this institution has not prohibited groups like Etcetera from letting their voices be heard and their rights exercised freely. We should expect The Maroon to act accordingly.

The newspaper’s job is to report the news first. It exists not to represent the students but to report to the students. Our school paper has done an excellent job of allowing voices to be heard. The fact that it printed his letter is evidence of that.

I must confess that I side with gays morally. I admit this not because it is relevant but because I wrote this column from that bias. We libertarians accept both sides of the moral issue, as long as they are not prohibited from letting their voices be heard.

Those who publicly accuse homosexuals of moral deviation should not try to suppress those who fight back from the other side. We should expect our newspaper to report the news.