Civil unions create unequal treatment

Regarding the Herald’s opinion of July 2 regarding its position on gay marriage, two points must be stressed:

First, the reason that at the state level civil union legislation creates an unequal status for gays in Illinois is that straight citizens here are now offered an unequally beneficial choice between both marriage and a civil union and their respective civil protections under state civil law, while gay citizens are offered only a civil union, period.

Gay citizens in Illinois still may not file a joint tax return and reap the tax benefits given to married spouses. That there is no like option between civil protections offered to gay citizens at all is obviously inequitable.

Secondly, the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional in that it requires all citizens, gay and straight to adhere to a specific religious principle, regardless of what faith they follow, and which may not fall within the realm of their own chosen faith, if they are to have access under Federal law to a specific civil right: here the civil right to marry. The institution of civil marriage is religiously defined under this federal law solely as a union between a man and a woman- regardless of what one’s personal religion states.

We do not prequalify any U.S. citizens by requiring them to fulfill the specific religious standard of a couple comprising one man and one woman before they can have access to any other civil liberty, not the right to vote, to bear arms, or to collectively assemble, or even to have access to a civil union. The Defense of Marriage Act sets a potentially frightening precedent, and straight citizens are also adversely affected. All citizens should take a closer look at the inequities immediately affecting them under the supposed auspices of the Defense of Marriage Act.

John F. Page

Libertyville