In Thursday’s issue of The Daily Free Press, a letter to the editor was published by Matthew Sullivan (“Couples Marry to Procreate,” pg. 11) which contains a quote that is blatantly offensive to all gays and lesbians. Mr. Sullivan writes, “Just a little more than 30 years ago, in 1973, homosexuality was considered a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, and now less than 32 years later we are going to stand back and allow these same people, who once were considered to have mental disorders, to get married?”
Does he honestly believe that because homosexuals were unjustly labeled mentally ill, “these same people” should have no right to marry? Well by Mr. Sullivan’s logic, how would African-Americans feel if they were not granted marriage licenses because they were once slaves? I have news for you — they would feel pretty rotten.
Mr. Sullivan has deeply offended this homosexual who looks at the laws of Massachusetts and sees no words that state, “Marriage is between a man and a woman.” The Supreme Judicial Court was correct in ruling that gays and lesbians have every right to marry. This is an important issue, because even under Vermont’s civil union laws, gays and lesbians are not granted the full benefits of marriage.
I am also quite tired of hearing that marriage is a religious institution. I have news for everyone – there was no religious ceremony involved when 15 same-sex marriages in San Francisco occurred on Thursday. Unfortunately, Mr. Sullivan – and many others protesting outside the statehouse -are of the belief that gays and lesbians are, in fact, “second-class citizens,” a view the SJC does not share.
This is a civil rights issue – it should not be voted on by the people of Massachusetts. There were no ballots cast among citizens when schools were desegregated – because it is a person’s right not to be discriminated against. If there were ballots cast, schools would still be segregated today.
I am gay. I plan to get married (if it is ever legalized). Gasp! I also plan to raise my children and we will be a “normal” American family. This will definitely offend some, even when marriage between gays and lesbians is legalized. I am terribly sorry but I, being of the 10 percent of this country that was considered “mentally ill” in 1973, will be granted all the rights and privileges of straight couples … sooner or later.
Samuel M. Ashner
CGS ’07
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
