Gay marriage is part of progress

Exactly how do you respond to the level of ignorance displayed in Fence Post writer's Gene Maril "Gay marriage equals special treatment?" Contending that "special rights" would be conferred on gays because straights "are also not allowed to marry people of the same sex" belies the tortured thinking of a frightened bigot.

He maintains that gays are asking for special treatment because of their "sexual lifestyle." Mr. Maril, it is 2009. Face this fact; homosexuality is not a sexual lifestyle. It is not a choice. It just is. Like your presumed heterosexuality, one does not make a "choice" one day to be attracted to those of the same gender and in so doing, expose themselves to ridicule and a class of citizenry that is not allowed the same rights as those who benefit from the genetic accident of their heterosexuality, like marriage.

Citing history's lack of gay marriage rights as proof of your argument is equally specious. Until man went to the moon, invented the light bulb, split the atom, invented telecommunications, et. al., those things had never happened before. By your logic, because they had never happened before, it would be wrong for them to happen at all. Were you against giving blacks the right to vote because it had never happened before? If you had been alive before women voted, would it have been wrong to grant them that right?

It's called progress Mr. Maril, progress based on enlightenment, on education, on discovery, on stripping away old prejudices because they are based in ignorance (deliberate or otherwise).

You concluded your letter with "I rest my case." You would have been more accurate had you written, "I've closed my mind."

Tom Adrahtas

Wheeling