My Letter to the Editor: Gay Marriage

My Letter to the Editor published in the Coloradoan (2012)

There has been a lot of talk about gay marriage with the election coming up, but some of what people have to say has greatly disturbed me. The question should not be, "Should gay people be allowed to marry?" The more important question is, "Are gay people human?" The answer is obviously yes, and therefore they should be allowed the same rights as the rest of the citizens of America. Marriage allows you to be with your husband or wife when they are dying in the hospital, but civil unions do not allow for that. How horrible would you feel if your husband or wife died and you couldn’t be with them in their last moments because of a law saying you were not truly married? This is no different from the “Separate but Equal” campaign during the 1930’s. That did not work, because we were separate, but not equal. This is happening again right now, but this time it is against people based on their sexuality. This country has traveled far on the road to “equality for all,” this is the next step. If gay marriage is not allowed, we should change the Pledge of Allegiance to say “With Liberty and Justice for all who think like me” because that is what is being said when you argue against the basic right to marry the person you love. Protecting the sanctity of marriage should mean protecting committed relationships, not based on sexuality or gender.