LGBT people are already equal

Dear BTL,
I am glad that Jennifer Granholm is the Governor of Michigan. She seems at least friendly to the gay community. But how could she get away with saying what you attributed to her on the cover of your Sept. 22, 2005 edition of Between the Lines: "Keep fighting for equality."
Please! One of our most venerated documents — an icon for what America is supposed to be – begs to differ: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
It's hard to believe an elected official of the United States of America could stand before Americans saying those Americans need to fight for their equality. Fight who? Who is the enemy?
The revolutionary war was the "fight" that declared we had rights – equality. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. The Governor's comments would at least be understandable if they were made addressing an underground movement in an occupied country. But her statements were made in a free country — to a "free" people!
Many of us think we don't have rights and are not equal. That's our problem. Thomas Jefferson stated that our rights were given us by God. Government is supposed to enforce those rights — at least that's what the Declaration of Independence says.
The beauty of what Rosa Parks did was to decide that enough was enough! On that fateful day in the mid 1950s, she declared herself equal. She let everyone know what she thought of herself. She welcomed herself that day to the only race that exists, the human race! The rest is history. Would anyone dare argue that she didn't have the "right" to do what she did?
Let's follow her inspiring example. We don't need to fight for rights we already have. We need to insist that those rights be respected! So, Like Ms. Parks, let us hold our heads up high GLBT people. Let everyone know by our expectations of them that we are equal and have the right to walk the planet just as much as anyone else does. Truly, let us convince ourselves of this first. All of us deserve respect.
Mike Summers
Detroit