Gay Marriage: A question of civil rights

By Marsha Feinland

Every adult should have the right to marry

In the United States, the institution of marriage controls our right to such matters as child custody, hospital visitation, and retirement income. It is also the most common and socially accepted form of a committed relationship between two adults. To deprive any couple of the right to marry is discrimination. We cannot allow discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, just as we no longer allow "miscegenation" laws to prohibit interracial marriage.

Now that the California State Supreme Court has ruled in favor of gay marriage, we need to preserve that right. We must defeat Proposition 8 and any other effort to amend the state constitution to define "marriage" as a right which exists only between a man and a woman. As long as the institution exists, everyone has the right to marry.