As I've frequently written in comments and in letters to my friends and family, I'm a strong believer in taking action for things in which we want to see happen instead of bitching and moaning about why they're not happening. I'm a huge supporter of GLBT rights--including the rights to marry and to have or adopt children--and it is with dismay that I've been reading the constant onslaught of Rick Warren-related ventfests on DailyKOS.
It's all fine and wonderful to share our anger, confusion, and outrage over President-Elect Obama's pick of inaugural invocation leader. I agree wholeheartedly that these emotions are justified. What is even better, however, is turning these emotions into action and directing this action to the places of power to which our outrage belongs.
It is because of this that I have written an open letter to my state of Florida's Governor, Charlie Crist, who has recently married his fiancè, Carol. I intend to mail a hard-copy of this letter to Governor Crist's postal address--in a Christmas card, no less--and also mail similar hard-copy letters to Rick Warren at the Saddleback Church's address and, yes, to President-Elect Obama's transition office. The full letter (sans postal information) is at the jump.
Dear Governor and Mrs. Crist,
Many congratulations and best wishes on your recent wedding. My husband and I wish you many years of happiness and love, and many beautiful Christmas seasons together.
As the wife of a loving husband and a working mother of two foster children in the Florida state system whom we are planning to adopt, I am writing to express my disappointment in the passage of Amendment 2 and also the same-sex adoption ban that has recently (and rightly) been challenged in a Miami-Dade circuit court.
I am all for a healthy democracy in which the will of the people can result in laws that benefit us all as a state and national community. However, I strongly believe that the will of the majority should not suppress the rights of our fellow Americans and Floridians to enjoy the same freedoms that we do. Furthermore, to echo the words of the late Coretta Scott-King, I believe that our state AND national Constitutions should be amended to grant more rights to our citizenry--not take them away.
Many religious people believe that marriage and child-rearing should only exist between a man and a woman, based on Biblical teachings that were crafted more than 2,000 years ago. Although I respect their feelings and religious beliefs, I must assert that we are not a theocratic nation or state. Our state and national laws should be established on the basis of equality for all men and women; religious laws should remain in the church, synagogue, mosque, or other religious establishment in which they reside. Religious people would not appreciate Florida or U.S. police authorities invading their places of worship for the purpose of imposing laws that mandate a single religion upon all; likewise, gay and lesbian Americans would not--and do not--appreciate religious authorities invading and destroying their homes, relationships, and human hearts.
Governor Crist, you and I each married our respective spouses because we love our spouses deeply and want to build a lifetime together with them. Having had fertility problems, my husband and I have long wanted to raise a family together, and so chose to adopt out of Florida’s painfully large population of foster children to give two kids in need a chance to grow up in a loving family with us. I am aware you are now a stepfather of two young ladies; congratulations. :)
What you and I have longed for and attained in our lives with regards to marriage and building a family are currently being denied to our fellow Floridians who breathe the same air as we do, pay the same taxes, work the same jobs, and love with the same hearts. They are being denied their chance at happiness and human fulfillment with others in their lives because those who oppose this do so out of fear and a misplaced concern that somehow their own marriages and families will be tarnished, simply because two men or two women want to simply love each other and build lives and families with each other. I frankly do not understand, for the life of me, what some people find so nefarious about their gay and lesbian neighbors simply wanting to love each other and raise a family.
Please consider this as you spend your first holiday season with your new wife and daughters, and think of how many others could share in that holiday fellowship and family togetherness, but are currently being kept apart. As a straight woman who is utterly confounded at the refusal of acknowledging Florida’s, and America’s gay and lesbian population as fellow citizens AND as human beings, I urge you to take a leadership role in addressing this huge burden of inequality at your earliest opportunity.
Have a warm, pleasant, and very happy Christmas season.
Kind regards,
(boofdah's real name and address)