Idea stolen from the intarwebs with my own additions…
Dear friends who are thinking about voting for Mitt Romney,
When you read his or his surrogates’ comments about gays, replace "gays" with my name.
Examples:
- Kathryn shouldn’t be allowed to marry.
- Kathryn getting married is a threat to families.
- Kathryn can’t be a good parent.
- Kathryn doesn’t love, she can only lust.
- Kathryn can’t truly commit.
- Kathryn is what is wrong with this country.
- If Kathryn can marry, we should just let people marry animals.
- Kathryn is what destroyed the Roman Empire.
- If God doesn’t judge America for Kathryn, He should apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.
- Kathryn is destroying Western Civilization.
- Being Kathryn is a choice.
I hope this brings the debate out of the abstract for you. For you this is another academic debate in the culture wars, for us, this is our lives. I hate even having to bring this up, it’s yet another reminder of my own inequality and the fact that I have to rely on others for the rights that I grew up taking for granted.
The only “gay agenda” out there is people wanting to live their lives and love and be loved just like anybody else. We have the same hopes and dreams and goals for our lives that you do, and we want the same legal recognition and protection of our relationships and our commitment to another person that you have.
I realize there are a lot of issues out there, but we stand at the crossroads of history. Whether this is your intention or not, when you vote for Mitt Romney you’re saying, “I don’t want you to be happy,” that, “I think it’s fine if you’re discriminated against," that, "Your love is less than my love,” and that, “It’s okay with me if you remain a second-class citizen whose inequality is enshrined in the law.”
When you step into the voting booth, ask yourself, do you want this to be a country where all Americas are treated equally or do you want this to be a country where I am denied the same rights that you take for granted?