Prop 2 Reflections

I am a volunteer at Progressive Voters in Action. Our efforts to defeat City Charter Amendment Proposition 2, which denied same-sex domestic partner benefits to city employees, failed by a 51-percent to 49-percent margin.

This latest rejection of homosexual rights touches me personally, because I have a gay child. Some of these affirmative voters may think that I love [my] gay son less because of his sexual orientation. On the contrary, perhaps [me and my family] love him more, because we understand that he lives under a stigma, often with threats attached. We know that he is open for verbal and physical abuse that leave psychic wounds on him and his family.

The passage of Proposition 2 adds one more scar to the enduring layers that are the result of attacks on the humanity of homosexuals. This tells them that their lives and commitments and hopes are worthless. Once again, they find themselves cut off from civic respect, invalidated as citizens and human beings.

For the consideration of the voters who said yes to Proposition 2 and for future voters who face similar legislation, I quote the following decision of the justices of the Supreme Court of Vermont. "The extension of the common benefits clause of the Vermont Constitution to acknowledge the plaintiffs as Vermonters who seek nothing more, nothing less, than legal protection and security for their avowed commitment to an intimate and lasting relationship is simply, when all is said and done, a recognition of our common humanity."

It would seem necessary and proper that the citizens in a city the size and importance of Houston, a city that prides itself on the diversity of its population, present this Vermont-like enlightenment to the rest of the nation.

Elizabeth Behrens
Houston

If the wording "Same Gender" was used in place of "Same Sex," the voters would have been more tolerant to the gay community and probably voted in their favor. No mature person wants to talk or hear about sex (doing it is something else). It’s up to periodicals like yours to start the trend. Others would follow.

Guy William
Houston

Proud to Be an American

In response to Pokey Anderson’s column, "Searching For Signs" (October LeftOut), I want to let her know that I am a flag-waving American. The U.S., throughout its history, has promoted freedom and goodwill like no other country on earth.

Anderson claims that many around the globe do not love us. She asserts that the Sept. 11 attacks are "the fruits of our calloused arrogant affluence flaunted before helpless people for decades and decades of their sufferings." First of all, our affluence does not fall from the sky, Americans earn it!

Over 500,000 Americans died in the Civil War, the bloodiest battle on our land to end slavery. Cousins were killing cousins and our country was nearly torn in half in the process. The Civil War provides a huge statement of America’s moral character. In 1973, Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian Television commentator, responded to such deriding of America: "This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for America as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on earth."

Anderson references the recent U.S. rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, but fails to mention the disastrous economic consequences to the U.S. Even Clinton advisors opposed it and the Senate rejected it 99-0.

Our military response to the attacks will rely on high-tech systems that would make our heads spin. That’s why Sadam Hussein builds his shelters beneath civilian hospitals in Iraq! The purpose for building up our military, Ms. Anderson, is so that we never have to use it–a tremendous means of influencing human behavior.

America is a giving nation. The American Red Cross and Salvation Army do not operate only in the U.S. As Sinclair aptly argued, "I can name for you 5,000 times the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name for me even one time someone else raced to the Americans in trouble?"

If the recent baseball playoffs and the singing of "God Bless America" at the Seventh Inning Stretch did not inspire you to be thankful to be an American and to display your flag, it’s time to check for your pulse. In spite of life’s obstacles, where else would you rather be?

Mike Crowe
Houston