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
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