In the recent letter titled, "Time to be perfectly clear on marriage issue," I agree with the author of the letter, it is time to be perfectly clear on marriage issues. Certainly, I respect individual religious beliefs even if they are in contradiction with my own. This is not a matter of religious freedom but a matter of civil liberties.
Our relationships are devalued and delegitimized and our families are harmed in tangible and intangible ways. By not being able to marry, we are harmed in an infinite number of daily transactions. Health insurance, employee benefits, rights under tax laws, child custody, economic and property protections, health care decisions, social security and Medicaid, even the right to claim our partner's remains at death are denied us. It is impossible, even with carefully drafted legal documents, for a same sex couple to come close to achieving the security and certainty the law automatically affords married couples. We pay into the system, but are legal strangers under the law.
If this seems fair to you then please continue opposing same sex marriage. If you believe in allowing the same opportunity, rights and responsibilities to same sex couples as opposite sex couples, then please support our equality and civil liberties.
I would also like to respond to a comment by the writer concerning NAMBLA. For the record, NAMBLA is an organization of pedophiles, not a gay organization nor a part of the gay community. Furthermore, they have been thoroughly rejected and repudiated by the gay community. The writer's opinion that we are "mere puppets" of NAMBLA is not only offensive, but ignorant.
Kim Williams
Vienna, W.Va.
