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Gay-marriage foes are defending a long-held notion: Intolerance

Allowing gay unions will strengthen society, not weaken it

Date published: 2/15/2005

VIRGINIA'S proposed marriage amendment is an attempt to short-circuit the debate about marriage equality and America's growing acceptance and understanding of gays and lesbians.

This amendment affects the lives of real human beings. The 2000 census found gay couples in every county of every state in this country. They are your family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and fellow Americans. Most of them are fine, decent, hard-working citizens who are trying to make the American dream work for them. They deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and their relationships deserve the same support as heterosexuals'.

The need for love and companionship is common to all humanity, including gays. This amendment will not stop gays from forming long-term relationships.

Denying marriage equality will prevent them only from protecting and caring for their families. What kind of moral value is that?

Permitting gays to marry would confer innumerable tangible and intangible benefits for them and for their families while causing harm to no one.

Most objections to marriage equality for gays are based not on reason but on religion or personal distaste or animosity. Religion has been used over and over to promote intolerance over inclusion. It is wrong to invoke the love of God in order that one person's values might diminish the value of another person.

It is never legitimate to use the words of scripture to promote a loveless agenda. I suspect the purpose of scripture is not so much fixing the mind as it is widening the heart.

I have to feel sorry for those who are not willing to grow, who cannot open their hearts and minds to gays and lesbians. I wish I knew how to reach them.

Gays and lesbians suffer discrimination under the guise of religious freedom. Freedom of religion cannot come at the expense of another group in society. The same Constitution that guarantees religious conservatives the freedom to practice their beliefs against same-gender marriage within their own homes and houses of worship, also prevents them from imposing their beliefs on other Americans, especially when those beliefs infringe on the civil liberties of others.

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Date published: 2/15/2005