I sent this to my State Senator:

I strongly urge you to vote against SB 1250, “Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, providing for marriage between one man and one woman.” This bill seeks to strip a fundamental human right from an entire group of people for no other reason than to mollify the prejudices of another.

In 1967, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that the “freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men,” and “[m]arriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man,’ fundamental to our very existence and survival.” The context of survival here does not simply mean survival as a species, but as individuals, for we each seek another to share our lives with. To deny that right to one group based on something as arbitrary as sexuality is indeed denying a human right to us all. It runs contrary to the very reasons that our forefathers rose up to forge a new destiny. If we as a people are so quick to deny such a basic human right to one group, how long will it be until we attempt to deny more basic rights for equally flimsy pretenses?

Senator, I speak as someone who has no immediate stake in the outcome of this legislation. I am a happily married according to the laws of this great Commonwealth, and this bill would neither jeopardize nor protect that status. However, the denial of rights to one group lessens us all. I want my children to have the right to marry whoever they choose, to love as they choose, and to be able to do it here in Pennsylvania. I hope that you will denounce this discriminatory and un-Constitutional attempt to subvert human rights.

PA Residents can find their State Senators at the PA Senate Website.

-pb