Vote NO on HJR2

The following letter to the editor by me, Brian Leekley, was printed in the Monday, October 30, 2006, issue of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, which is distributed in the Moscow, Idaho and Pullman, Washington area.

     There are two competing concepts of marriage. In the concept leftover from the days of patriarchy, marriage is the ceremony in which her father gives away the bride to the groom and she thereby becomes her husband's property and subordinate, expected to serve, obey and please him and to bear his heirs to carry on his name. The concept of same sex marriage is incompatible with patriarchal marriage.
     The global movement of recent centuries for women's, and society's, liberation from patriarchy brought a concept of marriage as a free choice by two adult persons on the basis of equal decision-making power, shared property, shared responsibilities, mutually respected autonomy, and mutual, committed love. Such a marriage, like patriarchal marriage, usually produces -- and is enhanced and brought joy by -- offspring, but reproduction is not its defining raison d'etre. Marriage as the free choice of committed love by equals is compatible with the concept of same sex marriage.
     The Procrustean and mean-spirited proposed state constitution amendment HJR2 on the November 7 ballot would impose on all marrying Idaho residents a marriage definition modeled on patriarchal marriage. HJR2 attacks freedom of religion for those churches which accept and bless same sex marriages, and it denies, nay forbids, equal protection of the law for all regardless of inborn sexual orientation.
     Vote NO on HJR2.

          Brian Leekley
          Moscow, Idaho