Gay Marriage Opponents Drag Discussion Down to Hatefulness

January 27, 2008


I read with disappointment the Jan. 17 article, "Hundreds Ask Legislature for Ban on Gay Marriage." While I respect the right of people to disagree on this issue, I was troubled when Chuck Hurley from the Iowa Family Policy Center reduced the issue to a good-versus-evil debate.

Here in Iowa, we had over 300,000 people participating in the caucuses. It was a positive, civil and respectful process. Is now the time to bring the very old and tired good-versus-evil language back into the political arena? Hasn't that kind of positioning gotten us to this ugly standstill in our current government? Aren't people sick and tired of being hateful toward one another? To me, that kind of rhetoric feels cheap and desperate.


Stop dividing us and pitting human beings against one another. On this human-rights issue, one group is good and the other is evil? We are all better than this.

As I tell my children, I feel sorry for the people who feel that way about gay people. Obviously, they aren't blessed with knowing the remarkable gay people we know and love, the couples who have been committed to each other for many years and are raising happy, healthy children.

Agree to disagree, but please don't take us back to that "we are good and you are evil" place. It is really about people loving one another and protecting those they love.

- Kim Jones,
Urbandale.

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