You can't be serious

I found your editorial defending President-elect Barack Obama's decision to allow Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration deeply disappointing ["Barack Obama reaches out with Rick Warren invitation," editorial, Dec. 23].

The reason why a lot of gay people have objected to the decision is not because Warren opposes same-sex marriage, but because he compared the relationship that I share with my partner to incest and child molestation in an interview with Beliefnet.com.

He actively campaigned on behalf of California's Proposition 8. His Saddleback Church also bans gay people from becoming members.

Warren recently offered a pathetic "clarification" of his remarks -- comparing us to child molesters in a video on his church's Web site. Instead of taking responsibility for what he said, he blamed "the media" and more or less confirmed what he said before.

But I guess that doesn't matter because Obama wants to be inclusive. And besides, Warren is some sort of moderate because he talks about climate change and AIDS in Africa, at least insofar as it affects straight people there.

I guess homophobia is forgivable in a way that other forms of bigotry wouldn't be.

-- Alaric DeArment, Brooklyn, N.Y.