After almost 20 years of nursing and over 40 years of life, I have seen every type of bigotry imaginable. However, seeing bigotry profiled so prominently in a journal of my profession certainly is a new low.

However, the June 2007 editorial "Sticks and Stones" is exactly that bigotry. Is Mr. Kepshire so ignorant that he doesn't even know the implication of what he wrote? Well Mr. Kepshire, it is 2007 and civilized people (not to mention those who follow a code of ethics that speaks eloquently of justice and equality) don't consider "assumptions" about one's sexual orientation to be a stick or stone. Shame on you for needing a thick skin to endure having been mistaken for a gay man. You owe your readers a big apology.

Patrick Robinson, PhD, RN

Chicago, Ill.