Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Editorial ‘sinister and un-American’; how about laws against divorce?

Let your people vote!

That is how your editorial ended. On the surface, that sounds as patriotically American as any rallying cry I’ve ever heard. Like I said: On the surface. However, scratch the surface and you will find something sinister and extremely un-American.

You wish to remove one of the three checks and balances that make this country great. You wish to make a preemptive strike whereby gays and lesbians are not afforded due process within the court system. You feel that the mob rule of the majority, which is fueled by fear, misunderstanding, and outright prejudice, is far more intelligent than our court system.

Everyone needs to remember that those opposed to SR 595 are trying to stop a state constitutional amendment from taking away rights they don’t even have. State law forbids same-sex marriage.

I believe your greatest fear is that you know in your heart that what you are doing is wrong. And once this issue goes through the justice system (it’s not called the justice system for nothing), your prejudicial arguments for denying rights to our gay population will be seen for what they are: Homophobia.

Your readers might find it interesting that in 1912, Representative Seaborn Roddenberry of Georgia proposed a Constitutional amendment that stated; “Intermarriage between Negroes or persons of color and Caucasians ... is forever prohibited.” He said this action was necessary because some states were permitting marriages that were “abhorrent and repugnant,” and he aimed to “exterminate now this debasing, ultrademoralizing, un-American and inhuman leprosy.”

Representative Roddenberry could see the risks ahead: “This slavery of white women to black beasts will bring this nation to a conflict as fatal and as bloody as ever reddened the soil of Virginia.” Fast forward these comments 100 years and substitute the word gay where it says black and the arguments sound the same.

To our African-American legislators that seem to be conflicted between their religious beliefs and sense of justice, let me pose these questions: Where would civil rights be in this country if the majority white population had been allowed to vote on it?

What is more threatening to the “sanctity of marriage,” two same-sex people that love each other or two people that get divorced?

If homosexuals should be denied the right to marry because the Bible claims it to be sinful, then those who divorce should not be allowed to re-marry. The Bible minces no words about the sinfulness of that act. Jesus clearly states in Mark 10:11-12 that divorce and remarriage is tantamount to adultery.

Therefore, half of the people reading this article are guilty of adultery, according to Jesus, but nobody has a problem with that part of the Bible. And many of the churches and their pastors will gladly perform the ceremony that places them in the unholy bonds of adultery.

And the civil rights movement owes one major debt of gratitude to a gay black man by the name of Bayard Rustin. This master strategist organized the 1963 March on Washington, was the one that introduced nonviolent techniques to the movement, and helped mold Dr. King into a symbol of peace and nonviolence.

Dr. King was painfully forced to eventually distance himself from his close friend and ally for the “good of the movement.” Little has changed in 40 years.

In 20 years when we revisit this subject, this will not be seen as The Citizen’s finest hour. Hopefully, by then, you will have transcended your homophobic past much like Strom Thurmond and George Wallace did with their racist past.

It is folly for you to think that the Rev. Martin Luther King would be appalled for the reasons you stated. He would be appalled by your continued prejudice and by anyone that would try to subvert democracy by denying the rights of an oppressed minority. Dr. King knew how to fight prejudice when he said: “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

Jeff Ellis

Fayetteville, Ga.

www.familyacceptance.com