The Same-Sex Marriage Debate (Continued)

Real Threats to D.C. Children

Pastor Harry R. Jackson Jr. wrote last week about his opposition to the District's recognition of same-sex marriages legally performed in other jurisdictions ["One Man, One Woman -- Only"]. Several times in his piece, Jackson mentioned family, children and churches. While counting off the reasons he considers the District to be less democratic and less just because of its actions on same-sex marriage, I noticed that he did not mention the crisis facing countless children in the District's struggling foster care system. One who is so concerned, as Jackson wrote, about the best environment for raising children would serve such a goal better by spending time and energy rallying for foster children's rights and the increased presence of fathers. These are true blights plaguing the pastor's community, while the uproar against same-sex marriage recognition is nothing more than blatant homophobia.
-- Andrew Opie, Silver Spring

Traditional Divorce?

Pastor Harry R. Jackson Jr.'s half-dozen thoughtful and compelling points about the social and legal conflicts arising from same-sex marriage could also apply to the legal recognition of marriages involving a divorced person.

Jackson's conflicts absolutely arise for those of us who reject, on religious or moral grounds, either or both arrangements. However, while the conflicts can be difficult and not at all hypothetical, our society has successfully adjusted and worked through these conflicts for remarriage in a respectful manner and can do so for same-sex marriage as well. It is the double standard of accommodating the remarriage of the divorced while vigorously opposing same-sex marriage on the grounds of "protecting traditional marriage" that makes even some of us with more conservative leanings sense at least inconsistency, if not a bit of bigotry at play.
-- Mick Tamas, Front Royal

The Right to a Sham Marriage?

David Fisher wrote that gay people already have the same right to marriage that straight people have: "the right to marry someone of the opposite sex." I am a 62-year-old gay man who exercised that "right" and had four children. The pain, shame and disruption to the lives of my wife and children caused by that choice hardly enhanced the institution of marriage. My marriage diminished matrimony and was a sham. Mr. Fisher and people like him need to get some gay friends and deepen their understanding of this issue.
-- Ed Hawkins, Martinsburg, W.Va.