Dear BTL,
In response recent letter suggesting that Gays should "Sit On Your Hands" I can only say such a suggestion is very dangerous.
The writer said that Senator Kerry is taking the "LGBT vote for granted" and he does not want to hear anything about the Senator's 20 year 100 percent pro-Gay voting record.
Well, that is the same logic which gave us George II in 2000 thanks to the Green Party.
John Kerry has fought for us when it was not the popular thing to do. He testified and voted against "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" even when his Democratic colleagues were sponsoring the legislation and he voted against the "Destruction" of Marriage Act.
The Senator has fought for and sponsored legislation that would add sexual orientation to our nation's hate crime legislation and the Fair Employment Practices bill.
He supported the legislation that finally gave the District of Columbia the right to provide domestic partner benefits and he was one of the first senators to announce he would actively oppose a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman.
As for taking the LGBT community for granted, he is seeking the support of the Human Rights Campaign and he has placed LGBT people on his national election committee. One of them even came to Michigan to help get out the vote on March 2. (I don't see George II doing that. He won't even meet with the Log Cabin Republicans.)
As for his position on the Massachusetts constitutional amendment that would establish civil unions in the Massachusetts Constitution, the Senator believes, as I do, that you eat an elephant, pun intended, a bit at a time.
Every national poll shows that the majority Americans have a problem with the word "marriage" when you couple it with "gay" but those same polls show that Americans support giving LGBT people the same rights and responsibilities as married heterosexual couples. And unfortunately, non-gays also vote.
This will be a very close election and it would be shameful if on the morning of November 3rd the LGBT community were responsible for the defeat of someone who has fought so hard for them.
John Odneal
Birmingham
