Dear Washington State delegation to Congress,
As your constituent, I urge you to oppose any amendment that would write discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans into the Constitution.
To use the Constitution to discriminate against any group of people is shameful - and in this case, it's plainly hypocritical. It is not compassionate, and it is conservative only in that self-proclaimed conservatives would do it, despite its clear reactionism, which is the antithesis of conservatism, if only self-proclaimed conservatives had enough sense to realize this. The amendment adopts a radical position that would insert discrimination into the document that has, albeit somewhat hypocritically, again, guaranteed and claimed to expand liberty and equality for over 200 years.
You have all the usual arguments - the Constitution should not be amended to limit the rights of a group of people; regulation of marriage is a states'-rights issue (although, given US history, I am not one to advocate letting the states have too much power over civil rights or liberties); the amendment could forever invalidate civil unions or other legal protections for same-sex couples; the law should aid, not hinder, family cohesion; and so forth.
Then, of course, there is the sheer ludicrousness of claiming to support marriage on the specious grounds that it somehow is sacrosanct. Uh, excuse me? It has generally (a small minority of individual cases aside) been an oppressive institution that has provided camouflage to all manner of outrage; it is as often a failure as a success; it is too easy a refuge for bigotry and other ignorance.
In addition, an institution that proffers privileges only to adherents of a set of bogus claims and self-deceptions is, in and of itself, oppressive. In fact, would it be asking too much to request that you not only stand up and argue against the amendment, but also raise your voice in ridicule of its hopelessly middle-brow, middle-America prejudices - denounce it for the embrace of bigotry and conservation of ill-gotten privilege that it is?
And, that you fight for all people's right to participate in this privileged institution, as appalling as it has been to this point in history?
Sincerely
As your constituent, I urge you to oppose any amendment that would write discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Americans into the Constitution.
To use the Constitution to discriminate against any group of people is shameful - and in this case, it's plainly hypocritical. It is not compassionate, and it is conservative only in that self-proclaimed conservatives would do it, despite its clear reactionism, which is the antithesis of conservatism, if only self-proclaimed conservatives had enough sense to realize this. The amendment adopts a radical position that would insert discrimination into the document that has, albeit somewhat hypocritically, again, guaranteed and claimed to expand liberty and equality for over 200 years.
You have all the usual arguments - the Constitution should not be amended to limit the rights of a group of people; regulation of marriage is a states'-rights issue (although, given US history, I am not one to advocate letting the states have too much power over civil rights or liberties); the amendment could forever invalidate civil unions or other legal protections for same-sex couples; the law should aid, not hinder, family cohesion; and so forth.
Then, of course, there is the sheer ludicrousness of claiming to support marriage on the specious grounds that it somehow is sacrosanct. Uh, excuse me? It has generally (a small minority of individual cases aside) been an oppressive institution that has provided camouflage to all manner of outrage; it is as often a failure as a success; it is too easy a refuge for bigotry and other ignorance.
In addition, an institution that proffers privileges only to adherents of a set of bogus claims and self-deceptions is, in and of itself, oppressive. In fact, would it be asking too much to request that you not only stand up and argue against the amendment, but also raise your voice in ridicule of its hopelessly middle-brow, middle-America prejudices - denounce it for the embrace of bigotry and conservation of ill-gotten privilege that it is?
And, that you fight for all people's right to participate in this privileged institution, as appalling as it has been to this point in history?
Sincerely
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home