Gay marriage ban is discrimination

I beg your pardon, Mr. Gennuso ("Gay Marriage foes aren't discriminating"), but marriage is not a gift endowed by our creator. It is a social amenity adjudicated by law. In the United States, it doesn't matter what religious ceremony is performed to sanctify marriage; it is not considered a legal marriage unless a lawful secular marriage license was obtained.

Marriage and religion do not go hand-in-hand in any sense of the word except by the choice of the people involved.

I am truly baffled by those who are so against gay marriage. It has nothing to do with them and does not affect their personal way of life. And I am truly angered that anti-gay marriage proponents bring up the fact that if gay marriage was legalized then it would tell their children that being gay is OK.

So what? If your children are gay, they were born that way and there's not a thing you can do about it, despite your ranting and rhetoric about immorality. There is no way that gay marriage and acceptance of a gay lifestyle in others can make a "straight" child become gay.

If the Lord hated gays, He would not have made so many of them. Do you think that the Lord would have put some people on this earth for the purpose of giving other people someone to discriminate against and look down upon?

At sorrowful times in our Democracy, his name was used as an excuse to disenfranchise black people and to deny women the right to vote. As long as we continue to discriminate against a large portion of our population, we are still in the adolescent stage of Democracy and it is people like you, Mr. Gennuso, who are keeping our country from reaching adulthood.

Judith A. Carlson

Des Plaines