1/30/2004

Letters received about the Ohio Defense of Marriage Act (D.O.M.A.)

DOMA discrimination is disgusting

I am writing in regards to Ohio’s same-sex marriage ban. I think it’s ridiculous that people can be so insensitive to others who aren’t the same as they are. Just because someone has different views and likes than you do doesn’t make them wrong. In the Constitution, it states that “every man is created equal” yet we still continue to discriminate against people who don’t share our opinions. As for people’s religious views, I doubt that when God made gays and lesbians that he intended for them to not be accepted. It seems to me that God says to love everyone. Where in there does it say “except gays and lesbians, don’t let them have the same rights as us?”

Ohio’s decision to try and ban same-sex marriage is utterly disgusting! Saying it’s not natural is a poor excuse. We don’t ban prosthetic legs, people’s hair color or plastic surgery and none of those are natural! When it says that same-sex marriage creates problems as far as how a family is supposed to be; how is it supposed to be?! Mom and Dad, 2.2 kids, a dog and a mini van? It’s not like that, not everyone is the same, and we as a culture need to understand that. Some of our conservative views are ruining America!

Lauren Walko

DOMA doesn't defend marriage

On Tuesday, as my friends and I played the State of the Union drinking game, Bush stated that he would not let the sanctity of marraige be violated by encouraging state government-level bans on homosexual unions of any kind. As my friend Bridgit started to cry over the president denouncing a sector of his citizenry, her tears fell upon the newsprint saying that the Ohio D.O.M.A. had been passed. Most of my friends and acquiantances in the homosexual community (and I have many) confess that they personally don’t want to get married just yet. But most of these persons are young, and still exploring. Just as you, the readers aren’t ready to get married until perhaps your junior year, or once you have your degree. However, they do confess that when they get older, they don’t want to still be going clubbing for a date.

What if tomorrow, the government places a ban on interracial marriages? Or declares that marriages are only legal if one of the persons has served in the armed forces? Each of these would make most people bastards, and our mothers, whores. But to digress, to say what type of person an individual has the freedom to marry is an outrageous way of taking away the rights of a growing number of our nation’s citizens.

Does the “defense of marraige act” make cheating on your spouse a punishable crime? Or does it make divorce illegal? No, why? Because it is a well-sustained belief that politicians, particularly congressmen, are notorious adulterers. And as for divorce, our nation is number one in the world for cases of divorce, it’s a several billion dollar a year industry for our nation’s courts, marraige counselors and attorneys. It would be un-American to starve a thriving sector of our economy.

“Defense of marriage” is a misnomer, and, put simply, propaganda. It is a rule that only permits certain persons a freedom that is a basic right, as part of our right to pursue happiness in whatever form it may take. Homosexuality is not purely about what gets a person off, it is about who we love, and how we as individuals see fit to show that love. The President and his administration are not defending marraige, they are defending hatred, oppression and bigotry. And I call on every decent, or indecent person, no matter their religion or party, to leave it up to the individual to decide who they marry.

Karl Erich Hopkins-Lutz

Sophomore, Pre-journalism major, member of PRIDE! Kent

All love deserves marriage

This is in reply to Elizabeth Burke and Tony Cox who made disturbing comments about the same-sex marriage bill in Monday’s Daily Kent Stater. Who are these two dinosaurs? Wake up people, it is the 21st century! It’s individuals like yourselves that cause homosexuals to commit suicide in our country everyday because they feel ashamed and not welcome in this society. It is time to embrace diversity, not condemn it. It is just another form of discrimination. Who are you (the government included) to say who is, and who is not welcome to experience the sanctity of marriage? I, too, believe that marriage is a scared and wonderful thing. I happen to be a happily married heterosexual Lutheran women. I also believe that two men, or two women joined together in love should be enough to constitute a marriage in the eyes of the law. Same-sex marriage should be allowed in ALL 50 states. After all, marriage is defined “as a social, political, and economic union between two (or more) individuals” (Haviland, Cultural Anthropology). You will notice that it mentions nothing about a union between ONLY a man and a women! I would also like to address Burke’s statement about religion, not all religious individuals condemn homosexuality, it is only the religious fanatics who live in fear that do. Religion should not interfere in government, do you recall a little thing we like to call “separation of church and state?”After all, we have seen first hand what happens when religious fundamentalism interferes with governmental policies.

Extremely offended student

Triniti Anderson

Decision to marry is personal

Recently, the Ohio legislature set into motion a bill that closes any remaining “loopholes”in the state constitution regarding the definition of marriage.

The bill seeks to further clarify marriage by limiting the definition to “marriage between one man and one woman.”

Along with this legislation is an additional bill to prohibit government and government funded institutions from ever offering domestic benefits to all unmarried couples.

While Republican representatives claim this move is not solely targeting gays and lesbians, the timing of the bill is directly related to decisions in both Massachusetts and Canada, where marriage solely defined as being between a man and a woman was ruled unconstitutional.

Gov. Taft has now publicly announced that he plans to sign these amendments into law. If made law, all gay and lesbian couples residing in Ohio will permanently be barred from the right to apply for a marriage license or domestic benefits. Further, if ratified, gay and lesbian couples from Ohio that are married in other states or countries recognizing gay marriage, will not have their marriage recognized upon their return. This is ludicrous! As a gay male who was recently married in Canada, I am greatly disheartened and extremely concerned to see Ohio and the United States regress on these basic issues of human rights.

Marriage is an institution of both love and commitment between two individuals, and as such should be blind to partners’ race, gender, ethnic, and social status. Who can love and who can marry is not for government to decide.

The context in which our leaders choose to defend the sanctity of heterosexual marriage further perpetuates bigotry and the stereotype of gays and lesbians as being demoralized, threatening monsters that wish to lead our society down a slippery slope to moral destruction.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Gays and lesbians do not wish to threaten the sanctity of marriage; we merely ask to be included in it. If my husband, whom I have loved for the last six years, were to suddenly become ill, I want to have the legal right as his spouse to be by his side in the hospital emergency room. Wanting to have my love legally recognized and to be protected by basic human rights that are afforded by marriage does not undermine the fabric of our society, it serves to strengthen it. Clearly, our most conservative leaders in government are fearful that if gay marriage is allowed, the unthinkable will happen … it will work!

I recognize that my comments reflect my own personal opinions and concerns as a gay individual, but I can confidently say to all of you reading my column that the legislators who voted for these bills do not represent me, nor do they represent equality.

Jason Seacat

Doctoral Student, Experimental Psychology

All minorities should be equal to love and marry

I am writing in response to the Same-Sex Marriage ban. I personally am disgusted with and ashamed of our government that this would ever even come to be such an issue. I thought America was the land of tolerance and equality. Why then, are so many being discriminated against simply because of the person they love? How will a man loving a man or a woman loving a woman harm America? How will it harm anyone so long as the love is consensual?

People try to say that homosexuality is a disease, or that it goes against the will of God. If homosexuality was a disease, which it is not, then the government might as well say that people with cancer can’t get married. If it’s a choice, then they might as well say that vegetarians can’t marry. And they state that it’s not God’s will for people in love to marry? Since when did God demote love? Why did the line between church and state unite against one group of people for no reason? Not all people follow the same religious beliefs, so laws should not be made that give one religion priority. Look at the polls, the majority of people in the United States support or have no opinion about gay marriage. The government needs to listen to the people, like it is supposed to do. It should NOT do whatever it wants whenever it wants. America was once called the land of the free, but I refuse to call it as such until ALL minorities within its borders are equal in all aspects. Equal to live and to love whomever they wish.

Shawn Szymecki

Freshman Zoology Major