There Is A Reason Justice Is Blind

Following is the text of a letter to the editor that I sent to our local newspaper. The exigent factor for my letter is the current session of our state legislature. There has been a bill proposed for a few years now, even before gay marriage became legal in our state, that would offer protections to the glbt community in jobs, housing, etc. This week, in an action that made national and international headlines, the LDS church authorities said that they were in favor of adding the lgbt to the protected classes. Everyone cheered until the full statement became public. The only way the church will support the bill is if protections for religious objections are added. These religious objections would be available to the church, the largest employer in this state, but also to individuals who have sincere religious objections.

"To The Editor:

Less than three years before my husband and I wed, the Supreme Court made it legal in all jurisdictions, even Texas where my Southern Baptist grandmother lived. Despite a unanimous decision finding that marriage was one of the basic civil rights, and a fundamental freedom, my grandmother still believed that the Bible prohibited interracial marriage. She disowned me and when the time came referred to our children as mongrels. She acted on her staunchly held religious principles.

The Utah legislature is poised to emulate my grandmother, passing new laws based on the Bible and on their perceived religious principles. Yet this same legislature frequently describes the Constitution as a divinely inspired document. If the Earl Warren court got it right in that unanimous decision, then the Utah legislature can only get it wrong if they choose discrimination over the Constitution.

Forty-five years later my husband and I are still married. It is less common for us to encounter outright bigotry but not unheard of. Without the support of law we would remain second class citizens, an unconscionable outcome in these United States."

I don't care how sincere your religious objections to anything are. "Judge not, that ye be not judged." is also in the Bible.