Dear Editor,
In a recent letter extolling the reasons why same-sex marriages shouldn’t be legalized it was stated:
“There is much more involved than merely whether one has the right to decide whom to be partnered with.”
I couldn’t agree more. It’s about whether or not we want to deny homosexual citizens the same basic rights that I and other heterosexually married people enjoy.
These rights include assumption of spouse’s pension, domestic violence protection, insurance breaks, sick leave to care for a partner and visitation of a partner in the hospital.
Perhaps many feel it is divine that a gay man is refused entrance into his partner’s hospital room while he dies because he has no legal connection to him.
One of the basic premises of the Constitution is the separation of church and state. It is not constitutional to discriminate against others based on one’s own religious and moral beliefs.
This is, in effect, what we are doing when we deny people these basic benefits. While the majority of Christianity may feel that homosexuality is a sin, it is still just a belief and one that not all share.
Everyone’s rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness should be protected as long as their actions do not infringe upon the rights of others to pursue these same things.
Bill Matis
Spanish Fork
