Guest Post: Respecting A Minority
{Editor’s Note: This “Letter to the Editor” was written by my friend Erin Weaver. It was originally published in the Rutland Herald, but I thought you folks might want to read it too, so I’m republishing it here.}
If God created Adam and Eve to populate the Earth, the only way to continue the chain of life was for their children to have sex with each other. Does that mean God intended incest as the ideal family model? I don’t think so. One example of a family described in Genesis hardly means every family must look like that.
A joint House-Senate committee held public forums on gay marriage all over Vermont last year. These were widely publicized, and every Vermonter was given a chance to speak. In every forum, even in typically conservative counties, the response was overwhelmingly in favor of gay marriage. I don’t know who the opposition asked when they established their “fact” that Vermonters do not support gay marriage, but where were all of those people when the Legislature was asking for their opinion?
I believe Vermonters would support gay marriage, but it isn’t appropriate to ask a minority to beg for the rights that they are entitled to under our Constitution. It is easy for a majority to deny a minority rights they themselves take for granted. If we had waited for the general public to approve women’s right to vote or the abolition of slavery, I think we’d be living in a very different society today. It is hard to take a stand on change when it doesn’t affect your own life. It is much easier to say, “I like things they way they are now.” However, it is time to think about what is fair, just, and right. Let’s set aside religion and ask, realistically, “How is your marriage going to be affected by letting two people who love each other enjoy the same right?”