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The Bay Area Reporter, which is San Francisco’s LGBT weekly newspaper, published two of our letters in response to its story about the controversy surrounding gay rodeos. On September 11th, TheirTurn wrote a story about gay rodeos from an animal rights point of view.

If you feel strongly about certain issues, please submit letters to the editor when a media outlet reports on them. These letters provide us with an opportunity to convey the message points about animal abuse that are so often missing from the stories.

In press coverage surrounding the gay rodeo in Ohio this week, the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA) says that “No one faces discrimination during the LGBT event.” In other words, everyone is invited to twist the neck of a terrified cow and wrestle him to the ground. Andrew Zollman, a San-Francisco-based activist with LGBT Compassion said during one of his LGBT rodeo protests, “As gay people, it is personal to us that people in our community would, after experiencing oppression and abuse and having to fight for their own rights and protections, turn around and unnecessarily abuse and bully animals.”

Rodeos are animal-bullying events masquerading as sport. How can LGBTs, many of whom, like me, have been bullied, organize a spectacle centered around abusing animals who have no voice? If anyone, gay or straight, did to their dogs what is done to the bulls, steers, calves, horses and other animals at rodeos, they would be charged with animal cruelty. Also disheartening is to see gay people bullying and attacking other gay people who stage peaceful protests outside of these events. Learn more and consider protesting at one of the many upcoming LGBT rodeos.