Join me in opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment

It can not be stated clearly and loudly and often enough. The religious right is waging a culture war in America. The target of their campaign is any group that is seen as offering an alternative to their strict, fundamentalist view of culture. They hijacked the US Senate when Terri Schiavo’s private wishes for a peaceful death violated their sense of propriety. Now, when the country is suffering from an immoral and unjust war in Iraq and Afghanistan, from high gas prices, from so many other ills, they are planning to pursue the discriminatory Federal Marriage Amendment yet again.

I have created a personal Take Action Page at the Human Rights Campaign website. I hope you will visit that site to see how you can help in this fight.

Here is the gist:

The right wing has decided to put forth an Amendment to the US Constitution that will define marriage solely as between one man and one woman. On the surface, this sounds benign, but when you consider the implications of this amendment, you will realize that it has far-reaching implications of creating a second-class citizenship within our borders.

By removing all hope of recognition for GLBTQ citizens, this amendment would deny them over 1000 Federal Rights that are automatically conveyed to heterosexual unions. Among these rights: the ability to visit your spouse in the hospital (suppose his/her family doesn’t like you and tells the hospital to ban you), the ability to inherit commonly owned property from your spouse, the ability to immigrate with your partner from another country, spousal insurance protection, Social Security benefits and many other basic rights.

If this passes the Congress and the President signs it, then there would have to be a national vote to amend the US Constitution. If that hurdle is breached, then discrimination will become law yet again. It took the US Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, several Amendments to the Constitution and the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s to overwrite the bigotry of our founding fathers who saw African American slaves as only three-fifths human. It has been in my lifetime that the majority has continued to support laws that denied multi-racial marriages. Luckily, these laws have come off the books and are viewed as archaic.

Why is the Religious Right trying to make it the government’s business to police whom we are allowed to love and with whom we form social, economic and political bonds? Their hypocrisy is rampant. When they run for office, they preach for smaller involvement of government in our lives, yet they are here trying to bring government into my life, my love and my bedroom. It is an outrage.

Please write your Senator and Congressperson and tell them to vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment.

Categories: Federal+Marriage+Amendment discrimination LGBTQ politics activism