Dear Editor:

Thank you for your timely editorial on “10 low-cost or no-cost ways to help “No on 8”. This is the defining civil rights battle of our generation and I believe that we need to rally our community to make sure Prop 8 is defeated. I look to our community and say: “IF NOT US – WHO? IF NOT NOW – WHEN?”

Two points I would like to make regarding your top 10 list was that:

1. You left out the most important action our community can take – VOLUNTEERING – Phone Banking at the Equality for All Headquarter at 301 University Ave (across from Urban Mo’s) is the most effective way to make a difference. Phone Banks happen every night from (6-9:15), Sat (11-3) and Sunday (12-3:30). You can call them to learn more or to set up a time to volunteer (619) 619.379-8585.

2. The web site for “Equality For All” which is the coalition of LGBT groups that have formed to defeat Prop 8: www.NoonProp8.com. It is the best resource to learn about Prop 8, Volunteer and Donate!

Brian Lacklen

Dear Editor:

This morning I went to Einstein Bagels in Hillcrest. Parked outside was a car with a “Yes on 8” bumper sticker. I waited until the owner of the car came out and I said, “I sure wish you would change your feelings and vote no on 8.”

She explained that she has a lot of gay friends. She also explained that she is not judgmental or prejudiced. And, she also explained that the Bible and her Christian upbringing tell her that homosexuality is a sin. She thinks that if Prop 8 were to fail, that churches would be forced to hire and to marry gay people. And, somehow, that is bad.

I asked her if she had ever told her friends how she felt. She said she has. She has her own problems and issues that she’s working on, so she admits she’s not perfect. And, she said that her friends accept her as she is.

My argument is this – if you would vote to deny me a basic civil right then we are not friends. How do you look me in the eye and say, “Dave, we are friends, but I am going to cast my vote with the hope that because you are gay you will not have access to equal protection and responsibility under the Constitution of our state. I am voting to seal in cement that you are a second class citizen. But, just know that I’m not prejudiced or bigoted and that you are my friend. I just don’t want you to go to work at my church. I love you, but not your sinning.”

So, to all who read your paper and care about the experience of homosexual men and women in our state and elsewhere, I encourage, and in fact BEG each and every one of us to vote NO ON 8, AND, to ask all of our friends and “friends” and family to do the same.

Dave Andrews

Dear Editor:

In light of your District 3 endorsement of Todd Gloria, I am extremely disappointed in your apparent oversight of some vital information. It has become clear that the GLT spins stories to support Todd, but you are doing a huge disservice to the community by not revealing some critical facts. All I had to do was look at the city’s registered lobbyist list and Todd’s donation list. Dont you believe that the people should know he took money from Walmart lobbyist Lou Wolfsheimer, Sunroad lobbysist Mitch Berner, CCDC chair under federal investigation, Nancy Graham and on and on. And if he only took 17% of his money from developers, as he claims (and his campaign has bragged about how much money they have) couldn’t he have said no to some of these people? Couldnt he have said no the President of Manchester, Perry Dealy or the 9 high ranking members of Epsilon Systems, a company contracted w/ Manchester Navy Complex and building missiles for this war. I want to know, Dont you guys care?

Christine Mann

Dear Editor:

Along with millions of fellow American citizens I watched the Vice-Presidential debate last night. Being homosexual, I paid closest attention to the candidates’ answers when asked about their stances on same-sex marriage. Apparently, neither of them supports gay marriage, but both of them feel that we deserve the same legal rights as a married couple. What, exactly, does that mean?

I disagree with and do not accept their answer, especially from Joe Biden, because it perpetuates a religiously idealistic semantic issue; and I have always been under the facetious belief that the Democratic Party is the champion of not just civil rights but human rights, here in our own country and throughout the world.

Refusing to acknowledge the just right of homosexuals to marry because of religious beliefs, or because of a religious interpretation of the definition of marriage, constitutes in its intent an establishment of religion; A violation against the fundamentally inviolable tenant of separation of church and state.

Logic dictates two forms of justice:

1. A civil definition of marriage in secular terms between two consenting human beings, or

2. A solely religious definition of marriage, resulting in any union between two human beings recognized by the state as being defined by some official secular term, such as “civil union”.

Why is such an egregious offense to civil and human rights convoluted by semantics? Is it because it allows those intolerantly opposed to homosexuals and our right to be married under the eyes of the law to continue to believe we aren’t all equal, or is it because it reminds all of us that we actually aren’t all equal?

We will attain freedom and equality when those with different beliefs are no longer sanctioned to force their personal religious views upon us. Although I’m voting for the Obama/Biden ticket, they need to hear that we know and demand what is guaranteed to us in the Constitution: Total Equality under the law by both the law and its semantics.

We deserve our pursuit of happiness. Vote for Barack Obama, but let our voices be heard.

Bryan Richter