Dear Senator Schodorf,
I thought you were a person of integrity who, when push came to shove, would do the right thing despite the potential political consequences. I really honestly thought you were more reasonable, more moderate, more caring than your vote on the anti-gay marriage amendment has proven you to be.
You say that your vote was because of the “huge number”of your constituents who back it. I know your constituents. I am one of them. I know that not nearly all of us support the amendment, and that, indeed, some of your constituents are actually gay. Has it occurred to you that perhaps the reason more of us did not scream our opposition is that your leader in the state senate pushed through a vote before reasonable public input could be allowed? Has it occurred to you that you could have – no should have – done something to stop this absolute abuse of the legislative process?
We’re not talking about some little piece of tax legislation that may cost a few people a few pennies. We’re talking about a massive attack on a despised minority that will probably cost many real people their civil rights. The irony of this vote taking place so close to the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. should be lost on none of us. Kansas’s anti-gay marriage amendment, that you voted “yes” to, is what he would have called “difference made legal.” That is, it is the very definition of injustice.
Hiding behind what your constituents seem to want is no excuse. It’s either shorthand for “I’m afraid I won’t get re-elected,” or it’s simple cowardice in the face of Joe Wright and Terry Fox. You are elected to the state senate to, among other things, show leadership to your constituents, not merely to always blindly follow their will. If you were merely an agent of the majority, there would be no need at all for representative governance; all legislative matters would simply be decided by plebiscite. A majority of your constituents may support this amendment. But if they do, the majority of your constituents are bigoted and wrong. It’s your job to have the integrity to tell them that.
Remember that in the South before the Civil war, and for many years afterward, slavery was considered a long, proud Southern tradition. Consider that for a hundred years after that blacks were still considered not worthy of equal treatment. Gay Americans may not be barred from sharing water fountains and lunch counters with heterosexuals, but then, sexual orientation is not so obvious as skin color. The discrimination this legislation represents is not different in kind nor intent than Jim Crow. It is meant to deny basic rights to a certain segment of the population. And that is wrong. It is un-American.
Whatever your actual motivations were to vote “yes,” your actions were discriminatory. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Sincerely,
T.S. DeHaviland
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