Letter To the Kansas City Star

Here's an letter from a PFLAG-KC member that was recently published in the Kansas City Star.

Kansas City
Fifty years ago, America had distinct classes of people. In arenas ranging from education to recreational facilities to transportation, black people had separate facilities, usually inferior and sometimes nonexistent.

Until the courts stepped in, black people were excluded from the mainstream of American life.

Even today, a different group, homosexuals, continues to be excluded from one mainstream American institution. Every government in the country allows heterosexuals to marry, but no government provides homosexuals with similar treatment.

A few provide inferior institutions like domestic partnerships. Most ignore homosexuals entirely.

I'm writing to support last week's decision by the Massachusetts high court granting equal access to marriage. I would have preferred legislative action, but legislatures appear as resistant to the idea of equal treatment today as they were during the 1950s.

All taxpaying, law-abiding American citizens should be subject to a single set of rules, and I'm grateful to the Massachusetts court for recognizing that.

Paul Hough