Alan Berner / The Seattle Times
Neil Lequia, helping carry the gay pride flag, chants as thousands march to Westlake Park last November protesting passage of California’s Prop. 8 banning gay marriage.
Winning the fight, but don’t stop fighting
Editor, The Times:
The fight against gay rights in general has always been based on a primitive and childlike fear of change and difference, and religious-right activists in Washington like Joe Fuiten have every reason to fear that time is not on their side [“Debate about gay equality appears to be ending,” NW Wednesday, Danny Westneat column, May 6].
But that doesn’t mean gay people in my home state of Washington should make the same mistake as their counterparts in California and simply assume that everything will turn out fine as the religious right seeks to put the state Legislature’s expansion of domestic-partnership benefits to a popular vote.
Gay-rights activists in Washington need to start making every effort to educate voters. That means reaching out to minorities and religious groups and never being afraid to prominently feature the gay individuals and couples whom the religious right finds offensive simply because they exist.
The book “unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity … and Why It Matters,” by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, found young people increasingly despised the religious right largely because of its anti-gay bigotry, and it’s clear that the ideological descendants of Anita Bryant will fade away. But as Danny Westneat points out, they’re not going without a fight.
— Alaric DeArment, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Nobody’s business who someone else marries
Being for or against gay marriage is irrelevant; whether anyone has the right to decide who someone else should marry is really the issue.
We don’t legally have the right to decide who our children marry once they reach the age of 18. How can we feel justified in deciding who any adult should marry?
Christians often use the biblical statement against homosexuality to back up their political push to prevent gay marriage, yet there are many statements in the Bible that modern Christians no longer adhere too, such as public stoning or wearing linen/wool combinations.
As a Christian myself, I am very familiar with the New Testament. Jesus emphatically tells his followers to examine their own behavior and mind their own business. In fact, he bore his most severe criticism to those who judged others. He also advised people to keep separate from the world. At no point did he encourage anyone to involve themselves in the personal business of other people.
It is simply nobody’s business who someone else marries.
— Iris Smaus, Kingston