Hey folks, I'm in the process of moving from sunny RED Arizona to BRRRRR Wisconsin.
The last thing I have time for is screwing around on the inner tubes but my son just sent me this letter that a friend of his wrote and the urge to share it overwhelmed me.
It's asking for support for Referendum 74 in the state of Washington, Freedom To Marry.
Enjoy!
Subject: APPROVE Referendum 74 - Freedom to Marry
Washingtonians, please hear me and please understand why it is so very important to vote to APPROVE Referendum 74. The main gist of this referendum is simple marriage equality rights. This referendum is to make all marriages equal, no matter who you are and the person you've chosen to be your life partner. There is no choosing with whom you fall in love, there is just love that is created, cultivated and strengthened through commitment. This is simply called marriage and everyone deserves to have that lifelong companionship.
How often do you ask couples how long have they been married? And how wonderful is it to hear someone tell you that they have been married for however many years? Referendum 74 is about giving everyone the possibility to answer that question. I didn't choose to fall in love, it just happened and it happened to be with a person of the same gender. I would like to have the freedom to marry this person, to have an official wedding anniversary. And I really don't want to have to put quotation marks around the word "marriage".
Supposedly God doesn't make mistakes which would mean that being gay is not a mistake. It would also mean that if you are gay, you're not sinning since God created gay, right? To sin is a choice, to be gay is not. Why would anyone choose the harder road/life just to be seen as secondary to heterosexuals? I don't feel that I'm sinning differently than you, I just love differently than you. I happen to connect in love and emotion with the same gender just as you connect with the opposite gender.
Please understand that I have no more ability to determine who to love than you do. Love is not a choice nor a judgement. Love is kind, love is understanding, love is what holds families together. CJ is my family and I want nothing more in the world than to marry her with all the rights and all the stipulations and all the commitment responsibilities of a legal marriage.
I want my marriage to be as legal and as legit as yours. Love isn't a choice and I didn't choose to be gay. I didn't choose to fall in love with a woman, it just happened that way. And she's the world to me through sickness and in health, for better for worse, she's my love, she's my friend, she's my treasure, she's a hoot, the best care-taker in the world and I turn to her for advice and comfort. Tell me how that is different than a hetero relationship and tell me why I don't deserve to have this person until death do us part.
Please vote for equality, for love and to APPROVE REFERENDUM 74! Please pass along my message to everyone you know and ask them to do the same.
I thank you so much with all my heart,
Nadia