Letters on transgender status, Sedgwick County Zoo, casino, gun violence

People do not choose to be transgender

Legislators and others should inform themselves as to what it means to be transgender. An individual does not choose to be transgender. From a very early age, individuals feel like they are in the wrong body and will act on their choices (play, clothing, etc.) as if they belong to the opposite sex. When someone is able to become the gender they are, they feel at peace.

So should individuals who are living in the gender they really are now use the restroom according to how they are identified on their birth certificates? Wouldn’t that cause a problem? That would put boys in girls’ bathrooms.

Transgender individuals have used the appropriate restrooms for years. Why are the legislators now making it complicated? Being a transgender, gay or lesbian individual does not make a predator.

Who owns zoo?

I was born and raised in Wichita and passed my 70th year here. I was always under the impression that the Sedgwick County Zoo belongs to us. It doesn’t belong to the Sedgwick County Zoological Society, employees or management, nor does it belong to the Sedgwick County commissioners (“County-zoo contract talks extended,” May 21 Eagle).

I would like to tell the commissioners that the zoo is more important than they are. Elected officials forget that for some reason.

Don’t blame casino

Wichita City Council member Pete Meitzner complained that the Kansas Star Casino was “strip-mining” the city’s convention business (May 25 Eagle). Last time I checked, the Kansas Star Casino was outside the Wichita city limits. The casino is a business in a capitalistic society. It competes for customers.

I recall that a few years ago Wichita residents decided that no casinos were welcome here. So be it. City officials shouldn’t blame conventions for using a casino that city residents vehemently opposed building.

What’s the convention capital of the United States? Las Vegas. What’s Vegas got that Wichita lacks? Casinos.

Sucking out vitality

Regarding “Kansas Star ‘strip-mining’ Wichita’s convention business, councilman says” (May 25 Eagle): Despite assurances to the contrary, the zero-sum gaming industry sucks the economic vitality out of Wichita and sends it to Las Vegas. Who saw that coming?

Why more homicides?

In about 1984 I was on a business trip that had Singapore as the final stop. The morning after we arrived, I saw an English-language copy of the local newspaper that had a 2-inch-high banner across the front page announcing that Singapore had its second homicide of the year.

I don’t know what the population was in 1984, but the internet lists it as 5.4 million today, and I thought it was packed as tightly as possible then. Singapore is a city-state island and not part of China.

Why is Chicago’s homicide rate so much greater than Singapore’s was in 1984 (“Over 1,000 shot in Chicago this year,” April 22 Eagle)? I haven’t read of any jihadist killings in Chicago. Can a sociologist explain this phenomenon?

Wear orange Thursday

We want to turn Wichita orange Thursday. “Wear Orange” events demonstrate the belief that we can end gun violence. Hundreds of locations across America will give Americans the opportunity to join the movement to reduce gun violence in our country.

Wear Orange Day was inspired by friends of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old Chicago high school student killed by gunfire. Her friends decided to honor her life by wearing orange – the color that hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves. On June 2, 2015, what would have been Hadiya’s 18th birthday, more than 200 organizations asked people nationwide to join them by wearing orange to honor her life, and the lives of the more than 90 Americans killed by gun violence every day. Hadiya’s birth date was chosen as National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

In Wichita we will hold an orange block party hosted at Pine Valley Christian Church, 5620 E. 21st St., which will be sponsored by Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and feature free food, music, children’s activities and a “Wear Orange” photo booth.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 12:04 AM with the headline "Letters on transgender status, Sedgwick County Zoo, casino, gun violence."