The issue of same-sex marriage deserves deeper consideration than the usual knee-jerk reaction we have come to expect from citizens and legislators who refuse to examine the issue critically and unemotionally.
The desire among members of the gay community to be legally married is properly viewed as that group’s endorsement of the value of the legally binding responsibilities and rights of marriage sanctioned and protected by the state.
I have spent the better part of my adult life litigating over the manner in which state law requires that fairness be observed and children be protected when heterosexual couples decide to terminate their marriages. That experience has made me a passionate believer in the state supporting, enforcing and honoring commitments that people make to each other to share their lives and support their children. The courts have found ways to enforce the responsibilities of heterosexual couples who have children without the benefit of a legal marriage.
Granting the legal responsibilities and rights of marriage to gay couples will strengthen rather than threaten marriage. To suggest that by expanding the right of marriage to gay couples you will threaten heterosexual marriage is ludicrous.
Judge William L. Downing of the King County Superior Court has written an opinion giving his rationale for his decision that banning same sex marriage is unconstitutional. His opinion illuminates how fundamental rights enshrined in the state and federal constitutions exist to protect us from this kind of discrimination not based on a compelling state interest.
To avoid the negative effects this ban on same-sex marriage has on our society in general, gay couples and their children must be afforded the same rights and privileges to state sanctioned marriage as heterosexual couples, and they must be held to the same standards of responsibility. To grant fewer rights to and to require less responsibility from members of this significant population diminishes us all as citizens of a country committed to equality before the law.
DAVID T. PATTERSON
Everett
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