Dear Editor,

Thank you for your vegetarian recipes [“Summer BBQ Recipes that Will Please the Meat Eater or Veggie Lover,” June 17]. The GLBT cause is about ending oppression in the world. None are free until all are free. So many gay people don’t seem to understand that. I’ve been to too many gay rallies to fight for our right to marry as we serve the participants hamburgers and hot dogs. Animals on factory farms spend their entire lives confined in cages so small they cannot even turn around or stretch a limb. Chickens actually grow around the bars of their cages. The overcrowded, filthy conditions on factory farms causes much stress in the animals which leads to diseases. This is why our meat is full of antibiotics. Chickens’ beaks are painfully seared off so they do not peck each other from all the stress. Treatment of the animals is not any better at slaughter. Cows are hung upside down, dangling from their legs as they go through the dismemberment line. Due to the speed at which the animals go through the line, they are often not properly stunned first. An article in the Washington Post mentions how they “die piece by piece” and are often still alive as they make it to the hide puller and belly ripper [“They Die Piece by Piece”, April 10, 2001]. Just because their DNA is a little different than ours, doesn’t mean we have the right to make them suffer. I hope more people in our community will live up to what they preach. Some of my gay friends say, “They’re just animals. Who cares?”. Well, gay bashers think of us as “just gays”. We suffer just the same as other species. To learn more about common cruel practices to animals raised for meat and dairy, find great vegetarian recipes, and learn how to switch to a healthy, sustainable, humane plant-based diet, go to HumaneSociety.org and TryVeg.com.

Sincerely,

William McMullin

Dear Editor:

As the Federal Court continues to deliberate on the validity of Proposition 8, I hope more people in San Diego will recognize that our constitution guarantees protection to ALL – not just some – Americans. As a Unitarian Universalist, I know it is important that marriage equality be decided based on law, not religion. My faith tradition teaches us to uphold the values of freedom and respect the dignity of our fellow human beings. As a lay leader I want to be able to treat my gay and straight congregation members equally. As a teacher, I want my students to be able to marry the person they love — the gay and the straight ones alike. My marriage has been strengthened – not threatened – by the example of the gay and the lesbian couples in my life. I hope the court recognizes the constitutional importance of those freedoms and rules to dissolve Prop 8.

Mar Cárdenas