Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 19, 2004)
march 19.2004 * Continued from Page 5 Cash and Kerry place in a newspaper in a metropolitan city and is very irresponsible. To the E ditor : E dward W. N oyer West Linn God bless Multnomah To the E ditor : am a lesbian and proud of it. The Christian Coalition should stop and think about the way it was before the govern ment raised the ban on interracial marriage. In the Old Testament we were told not to marry outside our tribes. (Tribes are what we call races.) Back before the courts ruled in favor of inter racial marriage, it was no different from what gays and lesbians are facing today. We have as much right to marry the same sex as they have in marrying out of their race. Come on now. Let the church stay separate from the state. My partner and 1 would have been in line to get a legal marriage license if we knew our way around Portland. I would have taken my Bible with me. What 1 feel needs to be done by the Christian Coalition is for them to see how many of them are in an interracial marriage. Would they like for their marriage to be banned by the courts? Thank you to the four Multnomah County commissioners and county attorney for having the nerve and sense to do what they have done. May God bless you fine people in your endeav ors to do right for all mankind. T he R ev . B onnie J ames Lincoln City 1 applaud the Multnomah County commis sioners for having such great courage in giv ing all their residents equal rights under the law by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. It was a little more than 30 years ago that inter racial marriages were against the law in many states, and it took gutsy, principled government leaders to change that. I have been voting for many years, and Pres ident Bush is one of the worst leaders in my memory. His latest proposal of amending the Constitution is an excellent example of his dis torted leadership, which makes him so despica ble; he has chosen the same-sex marriage issue for political purposes in order to divide our country, rather than uniting us. If, as Bush says, the institution of marriage is so sacred, then why does the United States have the highest divorce rate in the world? Every year there are approximately 2.4 mil lion marriages and 1.2 million divorces in America. Ironically, the highest divorce rates occur among Bush’s strongest supporters in the Bible Belt states of Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee, with other Southern states fol lowing closely behind in failed marriages. It seems very hypocritical that some righteous “Christians” in these states seem to be the most vocal in denouncing same-sex marriage and frequently quote the Bible to support their arguments. Since many of these “Christian” heterosexu als seemingly have treated the institution of marriage in such a cavalier manner, then why do they have such strong objections to same-sex marriages? Probably for the same reasons they fought interracial marriages. With Bush . promoting a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, I hope the 1 million gays throughout America who voted for him in the 2000 presidential election will get their acts tt)gether and cast their votes for John Kerry, who has unequivcx:ally stated that Bush’s proposal is a horrible idea. -Better still, gays should not only vote for Kerry but should teach the unprincipled Bush a good les son by donating big bucks to Kerry’s campaign within the next few weeks. L es H effler Vancouver, W ash. Going down in history lust out 7 Is Smith a hypocrite? To the E ditor : O regon Republican U .S. Sen. Gordon Smith has pledged to honor his son Gar rett’s memory by working to prevent suicide among youth. Admirable! This same senator has pledged to support President Bush in his attempt to make all gays and lesbians second-class citizens in the U.S. Constitution by making same-gender marriage illegal. Not so admirable! We wonder if the senator has given any thought to the fact that since the rate of suicides is already extremely high among gay and lesbian youth, his support of the anti-gay marriage amend ment might just make gay and lesbian youth feel further rejected. We wonder if he thinks his actions just might be considered hypocritical? To the E ditor : H oward F riedman J ack F allin M uch happiness to all those who chose to exercise their legal right to marry on that great day in Oregon history, March 3. More than 150 years ago, my ancestor Enti- enne Lucier (who was one of the first settlers in the Willamette Valley and who was instrumen tal in creating the first provincial government in the Oregon Country) married a Native American. This union was undoubtedly un popular at the time. Today their marriage wouldn’t be controver sial, and hopefully it won’t take a century for same-sex marriages to be looked upon in the same way as heterosexual marriages. Because of their love, same-sex newlyweds have kept the progressive spirit of Oregon alive! Milwaukie Majority rule To the E ditor : I n all of the excitement lately about gay and lesbian marriage, and especially the furor over the proposed constitutional amendment, a siz able minority of Americans appear to have been forgotten. 1 am speaking of those bom with ambiguous genitalia, known as intersex people. I believe intersex people are a natural varia tion of human sexual development. It is estimat ed that about 1 percent of births are intersex. In a nation of 300 million, that is about 3 million R obert E mter Continued on Page 8 Portland ^ u\ t«o n «li County c * nichts O re g 0 tp i> ^ I Do! •V michael daniels mokume rings Utf"M C jm Fi ne Amer i can Craft t D o w n to w n P o r tla n d 901 SW Y amhill | 503.223.9510 WWW.THE REALM O T H ER G O O SE.C O M 6359 S W C ap ito l Highw ay Portland , O reg o n 97239 ( 503 ) Congratulations Newlyweds! Come see me to find your new home. ^ Over I 7 years o f experience and compassion. Millynn James Pi Broker, Graduate Realtor Institute ABR: Accredited Buyer's Representative 5 0 3 .3 30.H O M E (4 6 6 3 ) 1 . 8 0 0 . 8 2 5 . 9 9 4 8 RfA'VAX R&>AAX equity group w w w .m illy n n .c o m Em ail; millynn@)<ac>l.com 246-4660 , ^ • • • • • • D e n tistry In tern al M edicine S u rg ery G e ria tric s Pain M anagem ent Preventive C a r e "P NEW C L IE N T S M E N T IO N T H IS A D F O R A FR EE EXAM.
