Dear Editors:

The outage expressed toward institutionalized religion’s support of Prop 8, particularly by the Mormon and Roman Catholic churches, in my view, is totally justified. But the Courts are likely to be the crucial battlefront in the fight for equality. Justice Scalia, no friend of the LGBT community, and several other right wing Justices are lurking on the US Supreme Court. Scalia’s language in the Romer decision lays bare the origin of the rationale for associating marriage equality with incest and pedophilia: “I had thought that one could consider certain conduct reprehensible – murder, for example, or polygamy, or cruelty to animals – and could exhibit even “animus” toward such conduct. Surely that is the only sort of “animus” at issue here: moral disapproval of homosexual conduct...” This scurrilous analogizing thinking then spread to creatures like Rick Santorum and finally to the churches. This argues I believe for a more immediate political focus on the courts than on the churches. Demonstrations to send a message to the courts should not be condemnatory or confrontational. We want to win them over to our side. But the courts that in the past that denied our rights and condoned discrimination against us, may provide legal redress. Let’s tell the Justices sitting in California and in Washington D. C. what we think with our bodies and our voices. There is a massive February demonstration being planned in Sacramento for the Presidents Day Holiday. How about spending part of your long weekend in Sacramento marching and rallying for LGBT rights?

Charlie Pratt