If Felons In Prison Can Marry, Why Not Loving Gay Couples?

The New York Times always has meaningful letters to the editor that I find highly enjoyable to read.  I post a pithy one here this morning, just a short time before a very important California State Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, as a way to showcase the lunacy of this whole idea about limiting marriage only to straight couples.  In a few short sentences that hits to the core of the argument, the writer below proves how hollow the voices of discrimination truly are.

The writer of this letter was a professor and advisor to James during his years at Middlebury College in Vermont. 

“Marrying at Rikers: Few Frills, Many Rules” (news article, May 10) makes an important if unintended point: Although prison nuptials are grim and cheerless, the civil right to marry is so fundamental that it is not denied to inmates convicted of very serious crimes, even if they will not be free to live with their spouses for years, if ever.

But same-sex couples in this country, except in Massachusetts, are not allowed to marry even if they are exemplary citizens making valuable contributions to their communities, even if they have been living and raising children together for decades.

Isn’t it time to end such a blatant injustice?

Judy Olinick

Middlebury, Vt.

May 10, 2008

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