When someone speaks of The Media, what do we picture in our mind? Television, newspapers, magazines and radio would be most people’s response. News would be events or things happening in and around our world. We all hope for unbiased reporting. We want just the facts, please, and let the people interpret the meaning. But what we usually hear, see or read are biased opinions depending upon the writer’s or speaker’s worldview.

The Salisbury Post’s June 12 front page has the perfect example of biased reporting, the Associated Press story, “A mix of pride and anger at LGBT rights marches across US.” The article speaks of marches and complaints that President Trump has stocked his administration with gay rights foes, with pictures only of the LGBT marchers. Those marching for moral decency and opposing LGBT behavior were ignored.

If you’re LGBT and this is your way of life, fine, live your life. But leave the rest of us alone. Why do LGBT people, Democrats, progressives and liberals seek to make LGBT rights a political issue? Happiness for LGBT people and friends is when everyone embraces their idea of an acceptable lifestyle. Why do LGBT people insist they alone need special treatment and special rights and complain bitterly when they don’t get their way or are offended? How about the rest of us who feel we are the ones being offended or imposed upon?

If we lose the right to believe as we wish, we are no longer free. We have laws that define illegal actions, but we still can think as we please. If government can tell you what to think and believe, this is no longer a free society but a dictatorship. Illegal actions are one thing, but thinking should always be free, and the right to disagree is paramount.

— Richard Roberts

Kannapolis

Editor’s note: A check of other media reports, including Fox News and the Washington Times, finds no mention of anti-LGBT demonstrators at the Equality March. The Daily Beast account noted an absence of such counter-protesters in Washington, D.C.