So I wrote a letter to House Majority Leader John Boehner, to express my experience of disappointment and frustration at the lack of marriage equality, and to call him to change his actions and instead support marriage equality. After the jump, it the letter in its uncut entirety
Dear Representative John Boehner
It was as a young teenager in high school that I started to fully realize that my country, whose values I had believed where lived out the fullest and whose great promise was extended to all, where not in fact extended to me, that in fact in the eyes of my own country I was and still am a second class citizen. It became crystal clear that in fact I was not and still am not party to full equality. As such the promises of what this great country was founded on, became clearly conditional in their execution even though they were supposed to be inalienable rights and everyone was supposed to be created equal under god, yet it was for the very way that god created me that I was not in the eyes of my own country created equal.
Yet I could look outside what was supposed to be the beacon of freedom and equality to other countries and see that there were other counties where I could live as a full citizen, where my rights to marriage where not conditional, where my rights to raise a family where not conditional, where I could find that person for me and live my life in full equality, where my rights would be the same as my brothers. Where just because of the person I love I would not be denied full marital equality under the law. Then in 2005 I could look just a scant 25 miles away and I could have the full marriage equality the I was being denied at home. It would be a lie to say that I have not thought, many times, about leavening this country that I love so much for Canada or one of the growing number of other countries with full marriage equality. One should never have to think of let alone leave the US to gain the equal human rights, when that is supposed to be the promise to all that live here and that come from all the far flung corners of the globe to live here. It becomes more painfully clear with every day and with every other country that blazes that now worn trail of marriage equality that second class citizenship is not only wrong and unacceptable but that it is something that can be changed.
I don't ask for much, what I do ask for is that I have the same rights to get married to the person that I love as my brother has, that I have the same legal rights and protections of marriage that he does, that my parents who want me to have equal rights get to see that achieved. I don't want any special rights, just the same rights that you have, the same rights my brother has and my parents have, it should not matter that I wish to marry another man, any more then skin color matters. All that should matter is that two loving adults want to unite as one and spend the rest of their lives together as they see fit. After all is that not one of the great promises of this country. It is such a great disappointment for what is supposed to be one of the greatest countries in the world to not be in the lead when it comes the this great issue of equality and human dignity and I truly do expect better from this country.
I call upon you to help put the wrong that is DOMA and all legal discrimination agents all Gay Bisexual and Transgendered couples into the history books as wrongs that have been corrected in this nation on our unceasing march to become the more perfect union, that our founding fathers so bravely envisioned, fought, and sacrificed so greatly create. Where discrimination under the law and inequality of rights of citizens is not and should never be tolerate. It is in the hopes of achieving the brilliant visions of this country that I write for you support and help, I ask that you not only stop defending DOMA in court, like the Department of Justice has, but that you take actions to overturn it in the house as well.
Dear Representative John Boehner
It was as a young teenager in high school that I started to fully realize that my country, whose values I had believed where lived out the fullest and whose great promise was extended to all, where not in fact extended to me, that in fact in the eyes of my own country I was and still am a second class citizen. It became crystal clear that in fact I was not and still am not party to full equality. As such the promises of what this great country was founded on, became clearly conditional in their execution even though they were supposed to be inalienable rights and everyone was supposed to be created equal under god, yet it was for the very way that god created me that I was not in the eyes of my own country created equal.
Yet I could look outside what was supposed to be the beacon of freedom and equality to other countries and see that there were other counties where I could live as a full citizen, where my rights to marriage where not conditional, where my rights to raise a family where not conditional, where I could find that person for me and live my life in full equality, where my rights would be the same as my brothers. Where just because of the person I love I would not be denied full marital equality under the law. Then in 2005 I could look just a scant 25 miles away and I could have the full marriage equality the I was being denied at home. It would be a lie to say that I have not thought, many times, about leavening this country that I love so much for Canada or one of the growing number of other countries with full marriage equality. One should never have to think of let alone leave the US to gain the equal human rights, when that is supposed to be the promise to all that live here and that come from all the far flung corners of the globe to live here. It becomes more painfully clear with every day and with every other country that blazes that now worn trail of marriage equality that second class citizenship is not only wrong and unacceptable but that it is something that can be changed.
I don't ask for much, what I do ask for is that I have the same rights to get married to the person that I love as my brother has, that I have the same legal rights and protections of marriage that he does, that my parents who want me to have equal rights get to see that achieved. I don't want any special rights, just the same rights that you have, the same rights my brother has and my parents have, it should not matter that I wish to marry another man, any more then skin color matters. All that should matter is that two loving adults want to unite as one and spend the rest of their lives together as they see fit. After all is that not one of the great promises of this country. It is such a great disappointment for what is supposed to be one of the greatest countries in the world to not be in the lead when it comes the this great issue of equality and human dignity and I truly do expect better from this country.
I call upon you to help put the wrong that is DOMA and all legal discrimination agents all Gay Bisexual and Transgendered couples into the history books as wrongs that have been corrected in this nation on our unceasing march to become the more perfect union, that our founding fathers so bravely envisioned, fought, and sacrificed so greatly create. Where discrimination under the law and inequality of rights of citizens is not and should never be tolerate. It is in the hopes of achieving the brilliant visions of this country that I write for you support and help, I ask that you not only stop defending DOMA in court, like the Department of Justice has, but that you take actions to overturn it in the house as well.
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