To the Editor:

Regarding the Aug. 1 letter to the editor, "Liberals and Conservatives shaped Luka Rocco Magnotta's Canada" by Paul Kokoski:

I am glad I live in a country where people have the freedom to say what they will, but sometimes that saying warrants a response when it smacks of bigotry, and fanaticism. Mr. Kokoski letter certainly smacks of such things listing a tirade of the downward spiral of society's sexual morality that ultimately lead to Rocco Magnotta becoming a murderer. This is apparently the fault of political parties according to his take, but I'll leave that up to each person as to what exactly they want to blame on any fraction of the government for, on any given day.

My issue is having "bisexual, homosexual, and transsexual" printed in the same paragraph as the same paragraph as "torturer of animals" and "accused murderer" I don't have a problem with that if it's just a description of Magnotta's lifestyle but the letter I read absolutely aims to paint everyone of homosexual standing with the same brush, and that I object to on a moral level.

I am a lesbian. I have many gay, lesbian and transgendered friends. We treat out pets like our children we are not torturers of animals, and we are not sick. We are families; we are husbands and husbands, wives and wives, taxpayers, voters, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, daughters, sons and citizens of Canada.

I'm also quite sure that legal pornography did not make me a lesbian and more than it made anyone straight. I am not one to defend pornography, dirty business that it is, but I will say it played no part in me choosing my sexual partner in life. If porn can make you gay I'd venture just about every male teen with a computer would be wearing rainbows and listening to Lady Gaga and perhaps riding herds of unicorns. So Mr. Kokoski I say to you in the words of Voltaire "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." Canadians shape Canada; the good; the bad; the gay; the straight; the white; the multicultural; the Liberal; and the Conservative. Criminal behaviour of this sort should not shape our nation and is no more a reflection of it then Magnotta is of the Canadian population as a whole. It's your Canada too.

E.L. Novakowski
Winnipeg