OPEN LETTER TO UTAH LEGISLATURE -- REAL FAMILY PROTECTIONS

I suppose Senator Buttars has a right to speak out, of course -- but the audience, not he, decides whether he spoke unwisely.

I have been a member of the Republican Party since 1974. Even by the exalted standards of Utah Republican cynicism, the Legislature’s insults against same gender couples seem unusually cynical as a strategy of preserving family life and marriage.


QUOTATIONS FROM A RECENT SALT LAKE TRIBUNE ARTICLE AND MY COMMENTS:

ARTICLE: “In rejecting the latest measures, opponents painted being gay as a "choice" rather than an innate characteristic -- contrary to a broad consensus among psychological and medical experts.

ARTICLE: "Adoption is not a right, it's a privilege. Those who choose alternative lifestyles suffer the consequences because they can't naturally produce between them," said Representative Stephen Sandstrom, R-Orem, who joined a 5-1 vote to defeat HB288. "Heterosexual couples who cohabit also face consequences because they choose not to marry."

MY COMMENTS: Representative Sandstrom’s logic is bogus. First, Common Law gives rights to cohabiting heterosexual couples. Second, some courts have assigned children in adoption to cohabiting couples.

ARTICLE: “And on the antidiscrimination bill, Eagle Forum President Gayle Ruzicka made a similar case against adding sexual orientation to existing fair housing and employment laws.

"What we're talking about is choice -- someone's sexual choice," she told a House panel. "Why would we put into law someone's sexual choice? … This is not the right thing to do."

MY COMMENTS: plenty of heterosexual choices do get protection in the laws.

I would like to see Gayle Ruzicka say this five times fast without laughing: “I choose to engage in opposite-Gender attraction sexual activity.”

As if that is just another element we choose in life like the toppings on an ice cream sundae. I wonder how many heterosexuals — oops! excuse me — how many people in my families who engage in opposite-gender attraction made careful, studied, conscious decisions after studying the possibilities about the nature of their first experiences in the back seat of a Toyota.

In my family, the same gender couples proved less of a threat to marriage and family life than did some of my heterosexual relatives who had multiple partners, who had multiple drug addiction problems, who had violent urges.

Heterosexuals have done the most damage to American culture in general and marriage and family life in particular. Heterosexuals promoted vagueness and laxity in adoption laws, easy divorce, multiple sex partners, polygamy.


THE CALL TO ACTION

If Utah's legislature really wants to improve preserve marriage and family life, then it should

■ strengthen antidiscrimination laws in housing and employment

■ promote universal health care.

■ require insurance companies to cover all sorts of treatments for both physical and mental illness.

■ discourage consumption of things that disrupt families like tobacco, illicit drugs, alcohol.

■ legislate to increase salaries of workers and decrease CEO salaries / bonuses.