This letter is in regard to the letters and editorials that have appeared in the Daily the past few weeks discussing constitutional amendments and same-sex marriage.

Discrimination is tolerated in few ways in our society. Racial discrimination is illegal in the workplace, in housing legislation and in education. Gender discrimination is no longer allowed or tolerated by most in our society. Still, our culture needs someone to discriminate against, someone to segregate, a group to blame for our cultural ills.

We choose those who have a different sexual orientation than the norm, whatever that may be. Their orientation is blasphemous; an offense to the very God who created them, a deviancy that must be isolated to protect those who are normal.

And so it has been, and so we in the gay community have learned to live our lives as second-class citizens, either living lives that belie our true natures or facing hate and hostility. We are your children, your brothers and sisters, and your aunts and uncles. We wish to be, and in many instances are, your doctors and lawyers, farmers and laborers, architects, artists, mothers and fathers.

A constitutional amendment will not make us go away. That amendment will abridge our rights as full citizens of this country, and perhaps yours too at some point in your lives. We are not to be feared. Your fear should be directed at those in our society who would write discrimination into the constitution.

Executive Cabinet Members

LGBTA Alliance