How would you feel if your Constitutional rights had not been granted to you for 142 years? If you had been ridiculed, spat upon, beaten, even murdered. If you were discriminated against in housing, the work place, and places like restaurants. If you were told you were "evil" and "a sinner" in the eyes of religious sorts. If every time you risked a try for your rights you were put down and told implicitly that you were second-class citizens? One-hundred forty-two years ago is when Amendment 14 became part of the U.S. Constitution (1868). Sec. 1 states: "nor deny any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws."
The estimated 15 million U.S. gay persons have been denied "equal protection" - a tragic case of man's inhumanity against his own people. A lawsuit to eliminate this inequity is in federal court as I write. An interesting question and answer exchange took place between Federal Judge Vaughn Walker and the lead anti-gay attorney Charles Cooper. Judge Walker asked Cooper how gay marriage would harm straight marriage. Cooper's response, "I don't know." Unbelievable. That's been the anti-gay marriage folks' hue and cry for years, but there's no evidence of harm where gay marriage is in place. Has reality finally set in? Have they finally seen the light? The time is now. May justice prevail!
