Both Vermont and our nation's Constitutions word a definite and deep commitment to freedom and equality. Thus our society decided to support civil marriages with legal, economic and social benefits in the belief that the marital couple can and will promote a stable society. By the time you read this newspaper, you will have learned about the same-sex marriage suit in the Vermont Supreme Court. We live in a society that continues the exclusion of homosexuals from full participation in family life, the military, and yes, religious life. A loving people is judged as immoral criminals by religious extremists and the uneducated.
Human beings have a true basic connection of commonality and then diversity.
The primary goal for decreased friction between homosexuals and their detractors lies in the continued movement of homosexual Americans toward greater visibility and participation in the political and cultural mainstream. My friends aren't degenerates or promiscuous Sodomites or marauding destroyers of civilization or, in Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's characterization, comparable to kleptomaniacs. Who they really are are lawyers and journalists, teachers and politicians, musicians, artists and pastors. They are citizens of America, but denied full rights, benefits and protection in her institutions.