The Daily recently printed a story on how campuses across the nation are considering adding homosexuality to a list of statuses considered for affirmative action.

The typical arguments against homosexuals getting any type of favor in selection processes is that we chose our orientation so any backlash we receive is our own fault; why should we get special consideration for that?

Even if I did choose to be gay — and I don’t believe I had a conscious choice in the matter — it is a legal choice, just like religion. Last time I checked, when a church is burned down in a hate crime, we don’t blame the parishioners for being Christian.

In that spirit, any hardships faced by gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender youth in high school as a result of their orientation aren’t chosen, and those hardships have impeded their ability to succeed academically, this needs to be considered in the college admissions process, not tossed aside as “choice.”

I know all about this kind of hardship.

I came out at 15 years old at my high school in Montana. I engaged in activism, and was consequently highlighted in my hometown newspaper as a homosexual. On top of my studies I had to deal with death threats, various hate messages carved into my locker, hate mail and various other attacks and threats from other students.

I wonder if many students who “chose” to be straight had to sit through English class in high school and listen to an oration of a paper written by a fellow student about how they deserved to die — how God would kill them just like he killed Matthew Shepard because he was gay.

If not, take my word for it: it makes it a little hard to focus on academic studies.

But I was persistent. I managed to excel academically and go above and beyond in providing community service to my school and community.

Many other students of different sexual orientations, however, have not been so fortunate. Many students drop classes or stop trying. It’s not easy to handle a Spanish class in which the teacher demonstrates to the class how to insult homosexuals in Spanish.

All this said, critics of The Daily article and affirmative action process really missed the point of the story. The UW Office of Admissions has said that it no longer needs the unfair point system. The holistic admissions process is much more comprehensive, designed to evaluate any student’s hardships and personal circumstances to determine who should be given priority in admissions.

Some gay students applying who may have had trouble focusing in a hostile environment during junior high and high school could certainly use the boost, and under this system they would get it — just as would a straight student who had undue hardships as a result of some facet of their life.

I don’t understand all the complaining about affirmative action, then, when our own campus has already given them the best solution to the problem. A holistic process has been adopted whereby the hardships of every applying student are looked at and considered.

Homophobic students would do well to stop beating the dead horse, as it is becoming quickly apparent that their qualms with affirmative action for gays have much less to do with what kinds of people should get special consideration than what kinds of people they do and do not want to go to class with.

Columnist Hunter Kincaid: hunterkincaid@thedaily.washington.edu