The Appalling Hostility toward Equality
With regard to the "gay agenda" that has certain groups whipped into a frenzy ("Groups say bills push gay agenda," April 25), I would ask that as they proceed with their lobbying against such outrageous legislation as a bill [in the Maryland General Assembly] that would ensure that people can designate medical decision-makers, perhaps those groups could enlighten the rest of us on what exactly the "gay agenda" is.
While I await their answer, I thought I would offer a guess. It seems to me that the "gay agenda" promotes marriage, loyalty to one's partner, social responsibility and civic pride, not to mention an ethic of work.
Proponents of this agenda apparently hold such values as monogamy and commitment in high esteem. Some of them feel so strongly about their relationships that they would choose to make a public testament to their monogamy and commitment by getting married, if allowed to do so.
They want to be allowed to stand by their partners' bedsides in hospitals, own property together, pay taxes together, take care of each other and their communities.
That is a pretty outrageous agenda, if you ask me. Who are these gay activists to fight the 50 percent divorce rate of heterosexual marriages, the countless children born out of wedlock, the rampant adultery and the marriages based on a whim?
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Jeanette Nazarian
Catonsville [MD]
[Op/Ed section, "The appalling hostility toward equality", The Baltimore Sun, 30 April 2005.]