The New York Times has published several responses from readers concerning Governor Paterson’s recent directive that state agencies recognize gay marriages performed in other states. Randi Reitan from Minnesota writes:
We have been married for 36 years and are blessed with four children. Our youngest, Jacob, happens to be gay. Three of them were married in the last couple of years. It has been a time of great joy for our family as they wed the love of their lives.
When our oldest son, Benjamin, got married, he asked Jacob to be his best man. Then our son Joshua got married and again Jacob was his best man. When our daughter, Britta, married her dear Matthew, she didn’t have a maid of honor. She had a man of honor, and it was her brother Jacob.
At each wedding, as Jacob stood by his siblings and signed the papers to make it legal, he did it knowing he did not have the right to marriage himself.
As a mom, I find that hard to understand and heartbreaking to know it is true. How can this country treat people in such a way that something as basic as finding love and being married can be denied to a whole segment of society?
2 Comments
i love the reitans.
You know what’s crazy??? I just realized who she is. Our church study group watched For The Bible Tells Me So after service yesterday. I saw this today and just loved it, but didn’t pay much attention to the name attached to the letter.
Spingles.