Arrow-right Camera

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

Fix people, not marriage

That Greg and Anne Jones support gay marriage and yet call themselves Catholic (July 14) is consistent with a contemporary trend in that words mean nothing. What next, Democrats voting Republican? Vegetarians eating meat? Men marrying men?

The trend toward nebulosity is spurred by people who mistake sameness with equality. The word marriage need not be fundamentally altered in order for gay people to achieve equality, any more than a woman needs to be called a man in order to do likewise.

The seeming magic that gay people attach to the word marriage is an illusion.

The issue that people are not addressing is that a huge percent of people who call themselves gay were not born that way, despite protestations. For most, there are myriad other possible contributors: psychological, social and situational. But this may imply a need for introspection and personal work, so they’re resisted as possible contributors. Ironically, they also imply equality. After all, we’re all affected by our environments and could benefit from introspection.

Marriage as it stands is a beautiful thing and doesn’t need fixing, but there are many broken people who’d like to fix it rather than themselves.

Tom Brooks

Spokane



Letters policy

The Spokesman-Review invites original letters on local topics of public interest. Your letter must adhere to the following rules:

  • No more than 250 words
  • We reserve the right to reject letters that are not factually correct, racist or are written with malice.
  • We cannot accept more than one letter a month from the same writer.
  • With each letter, include your daytime phone number and street address.
  • The Spokesman-Review retains the nonexclusive right to archive and re-publish any material submitted for publication.

Unfortunately, we don’t have space to publish all letters received, nor are we able to acknowledge their receipt. (Learn more.)

Submit letters using any of the following:

Our online form
Submit your letter here
Mail
Letters to the Editor
The Spokesman-Review
999 W. Riverside Ave.
Spokane, WA 99201
Fax
(509) 459-3815

Read more about how we crafted our Letters to the Editor policy