Will Laura leave you if I get married?

Dear George:

Will Laura leave you if I get married? That must be a concern. Otherwise, why would a committed relationship scare you? Will I proselytize for the cause? Will people decide that they aren't straight after all? Because of me? Awww, shucks, you give me too much credit.

If I get married to a woman, and beat her, that's ok as long as I “get help”. But if I have a healthy, loving relationship with a man, that will bring devastation upon our nation? Will that draw the “end times” near?

Or is there a reason at all? Does your pastor tell you to hate me? Did the Bible tell you that my life is wrong? That's what I hear, that G-d says I am living a sin. Pat Robertson and Rick Santorum think I'm only a step above animal-fornicators. That must be true, because G-d told them so.

I love G-d, and I am deeply spiritual. I was raised Jewish, and will always be committed to retaining my religious identity. But I never heard voices imply that I'll suffer eternal damnation. I hope that your reasons for denying my civil rights are important to you. I hope that G-d is very persistent when you are told to hate me. But my G-d never casts a stone upon another house. My G-d understands and celebrates the diversity of our civilization. Is my G-d wrong? I hope not; I hope that G-d is a respectful parent who loves all of his/her children. Maybe Pat Robertson's G-d didn't get enough fiber in the morning.

I respect your relationship that you have chosen to pursue, why don't you respect mine? Oh that's right, G-d told you that mine was wrong. Even if G-d is a G-d of hate, should that be a reason to write a Constitutional amendment? Really?

Our Nation is strong because it respects all notions of religion and lack thereof. Is your religion better than mine? Is your G-d more powerful than mine? Is that relevant? The First Amendment argues that it is not. G-d is wonderful and just, perhaps, but does that give you any right to deny me acceptance?

You, and your friends, argue that marriage is a 2,000-6,000 year old bond between a man and a woman, and that shouldn't be changed. Does history alone make discrimination right? Does the fact that the Romans and the Greeks and the Early Americans kept slaves, make it right? Was slavery morally acceptable because it was old? Lincoln thought not, and all of our great country eventually internalized the underlying moral issue.

Time cannot be used as a weapon against logic, for some rights are inalienable, acknowledged or not. Our country is slowly internalizing that fact. Why else is the country skewed across age lines on this issue? Pat Robertson and your other compassionate conservative friends want to shut down the national dialogue on this issue before it is ever started.

Our country is growing more tolerant, more accepting, more open. Who does that scare? Does that scare you? Do you need to protect our grandchildren from themselves? Will they destroy our moral fabric of our nation, will our nation have any fabric left? It's ok for our grandchildren and their children to pay for your tax cuts, but they can't decide for themselves the proper course of civil rights? Do I understand your position correctly?

I hope you can look within yourself to find a soul that has not been bought and paid for. I hope that you have the common sense and dignity to allow our children to make their own choices. We will not leave them with a habitable environment or with spotted owl, at least leave them with the power to decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong.

I know that eventually you must pander to your base, but consider the implications of writing discrimination into our Constitution. Of staining the most beautiful and most important piece of prose in human civilization with an ink of hate. I know that you can understand my bond with the Constitution. You find your salvation in Jesus; I'll find mine in Hamilton and Madison.

Brian
Age 25
San Francisco, CA