The Indianapolis Star Tuesday published a moving submission from one of its readers, who says he took Tuesday’s edition to his brother’s grave and “read aloud as much of the paper’s editorial as tears would let me get through.”
With the papers under my arm, I walked to Plainfield’s Maple Hill Cemetery, and found my brother’s grave. My brother, who had been a troubled Vietnam War vet, was gay at a time when being gay was a very difficult thing to be. When he died of AIDS in 1985 in a far-off city, his refuge from his closed-minded native state, some in our family were sufficiently ashamed that his cause of death was not discussed.
At the grave I opened The Star. I said, “Well, Charlie, times have changed, thank God. It turns out you were on the right side of history after all.”
He adds that he’s renewing his subscription to The Star because he thinks that “we must all support those who stand against discrimination and for inclusiveness.”
On Tuesday, The Star ceded the entirety of its front page to a large-type proclamation and an editorial calling on Indiana public officials to fix the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which critics say opens the door for discrimination of individuals based on sexual orientation and identity.
