Marylanders: My letter to one of my reps re: proposed anti-gay amendment

[Bertha Venation]

RE: OPPOSITION TO SB 746 and HB 728

Dear Delegate Hennessy,

I write to urge you to oppose the marriage-related bills currently being debated in the Judiciary committee. They are redundant. Maryland Family Code already reads, "Only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid in this State." See § 2-201.

Gay Marylanders are your neighbors, Mr. Hennessy. Chances are that someone on your doctor's staff, your grocery check-out clerk or bag boy, someone who lives on your street, the trooper who patrols your part of the county, the volunteer EMT/firefighter who drives the ambulance, and even one or more members of your own staff, is gay. Amending the state constitution to deny them marriage would mean denying each and every one of those individuals certain rights -- including the right to make medical decisions on the other's behalf, the right to Social Security survivor benefits, the right to inherit a partner's property, even the right to visit a partner in the hospital. Do you truly wish to amend the state constitution to take these rights away from your fellow Marylanders?

Besides these two, I have many reasons for asking you to oppose this legislation. I'd be happy to discuss them with you or your staff; you may call me at (xxx) xxx-xxxx. If no one has time to discuss the matter, perhaps you or a member of your staff would care to reply and ask about my opposition.

In short, sir, this is a matter of equal civil rights. Failure to see it as such will be a grave error on your part and that of your fellow legislators, and it will leave a stain upon your legacy.

Thank you for taking the time to read my words. I urge you to take them to heart.

(Hennessy is one of my district's three delegates to the state assembly, the only Republican, and is on the Judiciary Committee, which is hearing debate on the referenced bills tomorrow.)

See Equality Maryland

[Streetdoc270]

1. Well done

Very nicley stated. Just FYI in every EMS agency that I have worked with (3 now) I can name 3-5 Gay/Bi people. This issue touches all of us. We all know someone who is affected by this descriminating nonsense and should stop it now. We need to call for full enforcement of the 14th Amendment and extend all civil rights to all Americans!

[Bertha Venation]

2. Amen, and

thank you, Streetdoc. You EMTs rock. Thank you for what you do for us.