Have you noticed a chill in the air this week? No, it’s not the start of the autumn season; it’s a cold wind blowing right out of Washington, DC, sending a chill down our collective spine. This week is Marriage Protection Week, and for any of you misguided Bush supporters out there, the fact that “Dubya” signed this federal proclamation is a slap in the face not only to our community, but also to the principles upon which this nation is founded.

As Bush signed the Defense of Marriage Week proclamation he had the nerve to say, “We must support the institution of marriage and help parents build stronger families. And we must continue our work to create a compassionate, welcoming society, where all people are treated with dignity and respect.”

Thanks, but if this is your idea of treating people with dignity and respect, we certainly don’t want to see how you treat people you don’t like. First you say that you only support rights for one group of people (heterosexuals) and then you turn around and say that we need to create a compassionate society. Don’t throw us any more crumbs, because there is obviously not a seat at your table for our community. Anyone who believes otherwise is living in a fantasy world.

Apparently we aren’t alone in thinking this is about more than marriage. It’s a desperate ploy to hang onto your right wing support — and your office. Hillary Clinton put it best last week at a fundraiser for the New York State Pride Agenda when she said, “They have led our country miserably! They deserve to be turned out of office and they’re going to look for any way to stay in power. If the Administration and their allies want to make a campaign issue out of amending the Constitution we will not only stand against it but we will point out that they’d rather talk about taking away rights and undermining the ability of Americans to live their own lives, to have their own families, than to talk about the miserable economy, to talk about their miserable foreign policy, to talk about their roll-back of environmental laws and workers’ rights, education and health care.”

Yes, a line has been drawn in the sand, and we predict that gay marriage will be the right wing rallying point and one of the most contentious points of debate in the upcoming presidential race. There will be commercials, probably some of the most homophobic ever seen or heard. Evangelists will undoubtedly preach hellfire and brimstone from the pulpit, urging people to go to the polls to fight the advancement of gay rights, because gay rights will make God angry and our nation will suffer his wrath. They aren’t likely to mention that Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands treat gays and lesbians as equals and don’t appear to be suffering any divine retribution.

At the center of the debate is a piece of legislation currently before congress calling for a constitutional amendment that will not only ban same-sex marriage, but also prevent states from recognizing domestic partners or providing any of the benefits of marriage to same-sex couples, wiping out many of the civil rights gains gay and lesbian couples have made in recent years. And it wouldn’t just take away the right to a legally sanctioned relationship. It would affect inheritance rights, parental rights, and medical coverage – potentially even housing rights.

While passing an amendment to the Constitution is not an easy thing to do (it has only been done 27 times in 200 years), it is appalling to think that a President would support any amendment that actually singles out a group of citizens in order to deprive them of rights — something we are quite sure the founding fathers never intended.

It is time for the entire GLBT community to take a stand, regardless of their feelings about gay marriage specifically. Civil rights groups and the Metropolitan Community Churches are fighting back, holding Marriage Equality Week in protest, and the National Stonewall Democrats have said that they are “heeding the President’s call to mark Marriage Protection Week…. But instead of participating in a lobby campaign that hurts families, we are using this week to further educate our own party about how officials can protect marriages and families by granting them civil recognition.”

Bush made a good point when he said “we must continue our work to create a compassionate, welcoming society, where all people are treated with dignity and respect.” It’s too bad he’s doing the very opposite. We need to make sure that our families are visible and our love and relationships are respected. In honor of Marriage Protection Week, let’s protect our families and ourselves by insisting that we deserve nothing short of equality and respect.