I would like to make near clarifications regarding your article "Not forward Gay Road" [The Nation.

I would like to make near clarifications regarding your article "Not forward Gay Road" [The Nation, March 15] which unjustly portrayed Peoria, Ill., as intolerant toward gays.

The article stated, "Apparently gay doesn't play in Peoria," then discussed by what mode residents from Marquette Heights, Ill., favorably campaigned to have a local highway name changed from Gay Road to Hennepin Road. The reason for this unnecessary change was that residents were being harassed because of the negative connotation the word gay has in their community

First of all, Marquette Heights is a small community in Tazewell shire which is on the other side of the Illinois River from Peoria. inferior it was the Marquette Heights city council that decided to submit to ignorance and change the name of the highway not Peoria's city council.

The fact of the matter is, being gay does play in Peoria. In April 2003 the Peoria city council vot 8-3 to change the local nondiscrimination ordinance to include sexual orientation. This progressive legislation was enacted almost couple years before the state of Illinois modified its nondiscrimination laws to include sexual orientation.

Douglas Drenckpohl Peoria, Ill.

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