To the Editor:
Re “Gay Issues in View, Obama Is Pressed to Engage” (White House Memo, front page, May 7):
It is deeply troubling that President Obama—whose parents could not wed in many states—supports the special exclusion of gay and lesbian couples from equal marriage rights. Surely his parents must have spoken of the difficulties of being treated as “less than” by society? How can he fail to see the parallel between that racial wrong and this one?
In proposing to work for gay partner rights without marriage, he is advocating what was called for people of color “separate but equal,” which, as we know, was anything but equal.
I hope President Obama will soon recognize the injustice of denying gay and lesbian couples the fundamental civil right of marriage. Religious beliefs are no more a legitimate excuse for continuing marriage segregation than they are for denying racial equality.
It is intolerable that a class of citizens be legally treated as second-class citizens under federal and state laws—discriminated against for the fundamental right to marry, with its associated implications for social acceptance, spousal health care, inheritance rights and a host of other legal protections for lawfully married couples.
Ken O’Neill
New York, May 7, 2009
The writer is the author of the forthcoming novel “The Marrying Kind.”
Note from KBJ: Pedophiles want to have sex with children. Should they be allowed to, on the ground that their sexual desires are "equal" to those of nonpedophiles? Are they being treated as second-class citizens if they are not? The right to marry is the right to marry someone of the opposite sex. It is not the right to marry whomever (or whatever) one pleases. There is no right to marry oneself, one's dog, a child, one's car, two or more others, or someone of the same sex. Everyone in society has exactly the same right, namely, to marry someone of the opposite sex. This is why it is wrong to prohibit interracial marriage.
