Gay Scientists

I am writing in regard to your recent article entitled "Gay And Lesbian Scientists Seek Workplace Equality" (The Scientist, March 2, 1992, page 1). Like Bruce Barrett, the University of Alabama professor opposed to the existence of committees within the American Statistical Association focusing on gay and lesbian concerns, I find it troubling that sexual preference is apparently regarded by some as a legitimate basis for a subgroup in a scientific association. I fear that when those with other, less accepted sexual deviations finally organize and achieve the necessary political clout, any number of "alternative lifestyle"-based subgroups will arise in various professional societies. Where all of this might lead is anyone's guess, but I, for one, would not be surprised to see a few new specialty journals--The Journal of the American Bestiality and Chemical Society, Applied Pedophilia and Spectroscopy, or Foot Fetisha Chimica Acta (to name just a few of...