Homosexuality is genetic and determined before birth. I thought everybody knew that.

In a recent meeting a man asked around the table, "What do you think of homosexuality being taught in our schools?"

An immediate response was: "It is not." But the speaker was adamant. Yes, he said, the single lifestyle was portrayed in textbooks as if it was acceptable. To him just being single was intolerable, "queer".

I had to go back a few years to remember how life style was portrayed in elementary textbooks. Picture this: A woman with an apron standing in a doorway holding hands of a boy and a girl who were waving good-bye to a man walking off with a briefcase. The text explained that Daddy was going to work. Daddy works.

No longer. Textbooks portray reality. Now children see women as doctors, astronauts, and executives. What threat is there? And to whom? One old man suggested that if homosexuality really catches on, the human race will become extinct from lack of reproduction. Another suggested that life without intercourse with the opposite sex just is not natural (probably not manly). Believing the single life style is an abomination was more widespread than I realized.

To believe that such portraits promote homosexuality is an incredible leap that defies logic. But intolerance remains. The basis for that has roots for exploration in another thoughtful minute which does not involve a course in biology..