Today’s letter - Jesus was not about ’social order’

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Today on the radio I heard about “Black Liberation Theology.” The logic goes like this: Jesus was a rabble-rouser. He kept telling people that they should not listen to the rabbinical power players, but rather listen to God. This upset the power players so much they executed him for what we would today call political crimes.

But through his life and death, He gave us liberty not just over the tyranny of death, but also over the tyranny of Old Testament laws and oppressive Roman rule. We reach heaven not through punishing people, but by liberating them. From The Good Samaritan to The Sermon on the Mount, God’s message is clear: we are to love God with all our heart, soul, body and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. That what Dr. Martin Luther King, Bishop Desmond Tutu and even Jeremiah Wright are trying to tell us, and not a bad foundation.

Now as a gay dad, I’m just trying to be the best husband, father and Christian that I can. That seems to disturb a lot of people. But what Liberation Theology shows us is God wants us to love and accept people no matter how much they disturb us. Whether the gays will or won’t go to heaven is unclear, but whether the oppressors or the oppressed will go to heaven is crystal clear.

Putting your veto on AB 43, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, was an easy thing for you to do, but if there is any truth to Liberation Theology, it was not the right thing to do. After all, I may be a rabble-rouser myself, but I am still your neighbor.

Yours,

Today’s letter - respect and rhetoric

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

I wrote to you earlier about your Chief of Staff, Susan Kennedy, and how awkward it must be for you to work with somebody who you consider to be less worthy of having access to marriage than your other staffers. I thought I would let you know that you’re in good company – the President also has to work with homosexuals.

United States Representative Barney Frank is a notoriously humorous and powerful member of Congress and has been openly gay since 1987. In an incident captured by press cameras, just before George Bush’s last State of the Union address, Rep. Frank was on the phone with his boyfriend in the Speaker’s Lobby when President Bush approached him, leaned in and said “tell him I said hello.”

When Rep. Frank pointed out to the President that he was talking to his boyfriend, Bush responded “Well. I hope you said how open-minded I am.”

Yeah, it’s really open-minded to joke with somebody who you have pledged to exterminate.

Please, Governor, treat all your staff with the dignity and respect they deserve. Tell the people of California that marriage is not a special right – it is everybody’s right.

Yours,

Today’s letter - winning marriage

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Did you notice that the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 right after Massachusetts got gay marriage?

Well, on Friday, an appellate court made New York the second state to recognize same-sex couples with legal marriage, by considering valid and legal weddings solemnized outside the state.

What happened? The New York Giants won the Superbowl.

The upset not only broke the Patriots’ undefeated season, but it also ended Massachusetts’ four-year distinction of being the only state where same-sex couples are free to choose legal marriage.

Please, Governor, California’s sports teams deserve your support. Please tell your Republican party and the State Supreme Court that there is nothing wrong with gay marriage. Break our streak of domestic apartheid, and instead make Californians into the winners they should be.

Yours,

Today’s letter - it was we the people, not heterosexual males, who formed the union

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

It has been 135 years since Susan B. Anthony voted in the 1872 presidential election. She was arrested barely two weeks later because it was illegal at the time for women to vote.

In her defense, she argued that the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution said that all “persons” born in the US are citizens who can’t be denied the privileges of citizenship – then she pointed out if she were male, her behavior would have never been questioned.

“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government: the ballot.”

It took almost fifty years, but Susan B. Anthony managed to “redefine” voting laws to end the exclusion of women.

When you vetoed the Religious Tolerance and Civil Marriage Protection Act you said it was because of Proposition 22, a voter initiative that did not change either the Constitution of this State or this Country. You said I should be happy to enjoy the blessings of Domestic Partnership, and blocked me from making the commitment of marriage just because of the gender of the person I love.

I respectfully ask you to join us in the spirit of Susan B. Anthony and help us to “redefine marriage” so that all committed couples can make the commitment of marriage.

Yours,

Today’s letter - successful "shack-ups" undermine all marriages

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

I want to get married, but I’m running into more and more people who just want to “shack up” without making that commitment. I am starting to think that the decline of marriage might be inspired by the many same-sex couples who have been forced to build their families without the safety and security of marriage, yet have done so with such success.

Many of our friends ask me and my permanent boyfriend for marital advice, which we happily supply, but I actually felt a bit guilty last week when a friend of mine from high school told me that he and his girlfriend decided to merely live together because of how well my ten-year relationship works without marriage.

Even public couples such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie cite gay relationships as reasons for not getting married. It’s so popular that Senator Carol Migden introduced a bill that would give California couples the rights of marriage without the responsibilities. She calls it “Domestic Partnership.”

If you believe that couples in a relationship should get married instead of “living in sin” then you should sign AB 43, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, and change the gold standard for successful relationships from “domestic partnerships” to marriages.

Sincerely,

Today’s letter - an ode to the freedom to marry

When you try to justify
your veto in the people’s eye
you will certainly try to say
the people wanted it this way.

That was seven years ago,
when the people didn’t even know
the law protecting their state’s rights
would be twisted to block Freedom’s flight.

Twisted to prevent families
like “those” from having rights like “these”
by the opponents of equality
for their political opportunity.

The legislature has finally asked
you to join them in getting passed
a bill to bring the same equality
to families like yours and families like mees.

Your argument perhaps may pass
to the unsuspecting mass
but you know what must be done
to bring freedom to everyone.

If you veto 43,
you’ll be costing you and me
sixteen billion it would appear
plus twenty-four million every year.

Professionals have unified to say
Marriage is the best and only way,
and all around the world they see
that full marriage is how freedom should be.

But most of all it means that my
partner and I won’t have to try
to access marriage in some other way,
we can get married and have it stay!

You say that Proposition twenty-two
defending marriage from God knows who
shows that the people want to say
“same-sex couples go away.”

But I believe the people know
it’s hatred that has to go
so please sign the bill you soon will see
and bring full freedom to you and me.

Yours truly,
and Sincerely,

Today’s letter - tell the truth about Proposition 22

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

As somebody who has read your various statements about gay marriage in California over the years, I believe that you would sign AB 43 (the bill ending the special exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage) if it was the will of the people. The problem is that you continue to use Proposition 22 as not only a gauge of will, but also as a legal excuse for vetoing this legislation.

We can disagree about the intent of voters when they passed Proposition 22, but the intent of the law was to block foreign marriages from becoming recognized in California.

It would seem from recent polling data and the behavior of the legislature that the people are not opposed to extending the freedom to marry to their fellow citizens.

It would make me really sad if you obstructed the will of the people based on a bad guess of their intentions. The people do not oppose freedom - please support them by signing AB 43.

Hopefully,

Today’s letter - The Party of Lincoln should support freedom to marry

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

As a Republican, I believe all Californians deserve the freedom to marry.

We can’t focus on free enterprise, getting the government off your back, lowering taxes and strengthening the military when we have people preaching salvation through legislation and denying freedoms to get there. It always backfires and undermines the party.

Abraham Lincoln anticipated this when he said

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.”

California’s lesbian and gay couples have struggled and overcome the stigma of predatory stereotyping our party has wrongfully promulgated. They have built their families from love like everybody else. Our party shouldn’t be standing in the way of their freedom to marry.

Please sign AB 43, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, and give the freedom to others that we all so desperately deserve.

Sincerely,

Today’s letter - Congratulations on the Budget

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

I was glad to hear that you have a budget on your desk so soon. While you were busy cutting programs - including your own - to balance it, I found $40 million: just sign AB 43, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act.

We will save $24 Million each year by closing access to means-tested public benefits. That means somebody who stays home with the kids won’t be able to collect food stamps while their “legal domestic partner” makes a six-figure salary. (The study was co-authored by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law and IGLSS.)

As a taxpayer, I would also enjoy the $16 Billion windfall in tourism and commerce that Forbes predicts.

The legislature installed the ban on same-sex marriage in 1977, and the legislature can remove it now. It will not harm one person and bring dignity to so many. And it will help our economy. Isn’t that what being a Republican is all about?

Yours,

Today’s letter - First comes Love

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

The rhyme goes:

First comes love (we met June 22, 1997)
Then comes marriage (we were married in San Francisco on Valentines Day 2004)
Then comes baby in the baby carriage (we had twins - a boy and a girl - in March)

We did everything right! But our marriage was annulled by the state and now we’re reduced to groveling for our equivalent legal rights through the domestic partnership system.

Now won’t you do what’s right? California should have one word for marriage: “marriage.” Please sign AB 43 and give us back our marriage.

Today’s letter - Let them wed

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

In the October 2006 issue of Esquire magazine, Brad Pitt said “Angie and I will consider tying the knot when everyone else in the country who wants to be married is legally able.”

Their kids - and ours - deserve to have parents who are legally married. Please sign AB 43, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act and let them wed!

Sincerely,

Today’s letter - Going to Disneyland

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Today I’m going to Disneyland! Disneyland opened up their Fairy Tale Wedding packages on April 5 to people who are unable to secure a valid marriage license - like the citizens of California currently in Domestic Partnership relationships.

A Disney spokesman said “This is consistent with our policy of creating a welcoming, respectful and inclusive environment for all of our guests.”

I wish California would follow Disney’s lead, and like Massachusetts, Canada, Spain and South Africa, welcome our same-sex couples with the dignity of marriage. Please sign AB 43, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, when it reaches your desk this Fall.

California Dreamin’,

Today’s letter - States’ Rights

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

We passed Proposition 22 so we could make our own decisions about marriage.

It is time to exercise that right, and go where the Federal government won’t: when you get AB 43 , please sign it so same-sex couples can have all of the privileges of marriage - in fact and in name.

Sincerely,

Today’s letter - Religious Freedom

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

I’m writing today to ask you to consider Californian’s religious freedom when AB 43, the 2007 “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act” reaches your desk.

Congregations like St. Monica’s Catholic Church - where you go - should be able to exclude same-sex couples from the marriages they solemnize.

However, congregations like The Westwood Hills Congregational Church - right up the road - should also be able to exercise their beliefs and perform same-sex marriages.

California same-sex couples already have all the legal rights of marriage - why are you standing in the way of their religious right to marriage?

Yours,

Today’s letter - Undefining Marriage

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

From 1850 to 1977, California marriage law contained no reference to ‘man’ or ‘woman.’ AB 43, The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, simply would restore the common-sense language that was in our Family Code for 127 years: “Marriage is a personal relation arising out of a civil contract between two persons.”

I don’t know what made us redefine marriage in 1977, but government-imposed limits on personal freedom have no place in the 21st Century. Please sign AB 43 and get rid of this recent and arbitrary restriction.

Sincerely,

Today’s letter - First state to eliminate racial restrictions should not be the last to eliminate gender restrictions

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

In 1948 California was the first state to remove its ban on interracial marriage. At the time, only one out of ten Americans supported the action.

Alabama was the last state with a ban on the books. They finally removed it in the year 2000, fifty-two years after us. The popular vote was only 60/40 in favor of removing it.

California has missed its opportunity to be the first state with permanent marriage equality, let’s not make it the last. Please sign AB 43 and bring us marriage equality now.

Yours truly,

Today’s letter - Act on your beliefs

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

In 2005, you said “I believe that lesbian and gay couples are entitled to full protection under the law and should not be discriminated against based upon their relationships.”

AB 43, the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act,” would bring us one step closer to that laudable goal. Please sign AB 43 and put your beliefs into action.

Yours,

Today’s letter - Thank you for Writing

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

I received an unsigned letter from your Office of Constituent Affairs dated July 23, 2007, thanking me for my letter regarding AB 43. The letter states “Governor Schwarzenegger does not generally take a position on legislation until a bill has reached his desk.”

On February 16 you told a YMCA Youth and Government conference “I wouldn’t sign [AB 43] because the people of California have voted on that issue.”

In a March 13 article in The San Jose Mercury News (“Schwarzenegger’s Support for Gay Rights Only Goes So Far”) your communications director, Adam Mendelsohn, presented a very sophisticated explanation of your position on AB 43, along with a promise that you would veto it.

The National Association of Evangelicals of Northern California (”NAENORCAL”) writes “This is a great victory for evangelicals. Thank you for writing the governor and asking for a veto. Apparently this bill is now dead on arrival!”

What I want to know is why you seem to read and act on letters from NAENORCAL and other Opponents of Equality, yet toss me and my family off with a form letter featuring what seems like a lie?

You have a unique platform to lead on this issue, and – like me - the people of California deserve more than lip service on this issue.

Yours,

Today’s letter - hate kills

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Opponents of AB 43 say that hating gay people is necessary to keep their kids from becoming gay. Apparently the terror of having the snot beaten out of them will discourage lusty thoughts.

We know the statistics: homophobia causes the teen suicide rate to be four times higher. 50% of gay teens suffer verbal or physical abuse at home. More than 16% of hate crimes are committed against gays. Hate is not a ‘deterrent to gayness.’ Rather it is hate, terror and murder.

The ban on gay marriage is pretty basic homophobia. Please sign AB 43 and support gay marriage so when they decide this issue, the people will have a leader who says “NO” to hate.

Truly,

Today’s letter - More to Marriage than Man and Woman

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

A small but vocal minority have found a lucrative industry in convincing people that marriage is only between a man and a woman. They often forget the rest - that a marriage more importantly refers to two people in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law.

My own marriage - which is awkwardly called a ‘domestic partnership’ in California - bears this out. For us, getting married meant that we were bonded together for the rest of our lives, by family, law and God. My 80-year-old parents gave us both matching rings, and my 6-year-old niece drew us a picture of us together.

If two senior citizens and a child know that “man on woman” is a lie, why don’t you?

A marriage does not begin and end with “a man and a woman” in the real world, and it should not do so in California. Please sign AB 43 and help the people of California one step closer to realizing justice and equality.

Yours,

Today’s letter - Taking care of parents who take care of kids

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger -

Through my parenting group, I know several gay couples who have adopted children that were either abused or unwanted.

I wish these foster parents could get married. It would provide a stronger legal framework and access to services; it would remove the stigma attached to any child who has unwed parents; and it would reward these families with the basic dignity that ‘domestic partnership’ can never deliver.

These kids deserve parents who are married. I wish you would sign AB 43 and help Californians say no to discrimination.

Many thanks in advance,