Dear Editor:

What the heck is up with Bernice King? As the nation ramps up weeks of activities honoring her father, the late civil rights leader, this daughter is helping to fan the flames of intolerance by leading marches and other activities with anti-gay agendas.

On March 23, her mother, Coretta Scott King, was quoted as saying, “Gay and lesbian people have families and their families should have legal protection, whether by marriage or civil union.” Dr. King’s widow went even further adding, “A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages.”

The only thing that will protect “traditional” marriages is for straight couples to stop having extramarital affairs and stop getting divorced. Why does the gay community want to be handicapped by a word that has a 50 percent failure rate in the straight community?

As I’ve asked before, why don’t the leaders of gay communities come together in a national (and/or international) marketing effort to create a fresh concept to obtain all the civil and federal rights and privileges bestowed upon non-gays and use that word or phrase instead of “marriage”?

Personal to Bernice King: Many queers, Jews and other minorities fought by your father’s side for justice and equal rights. And anti- any culture is still a form of segregation and racism no matter how you attempt to disguise it.

Lee A. Schoenbart

Dear Editor:

In your editorial “Caution: Reading the news could be hazardous for people with high blood pressure” dated January 13th, 2005 your closing paragraph states:

“Hallelujah! Finally a religious leader making some sense. If we were to populate the school based on whether or not the families follow Catholic doctrine: no one would be left to attend classes. After the divorced, remarried, single and cohabitating parents – all we would have left are the few married couples that most likely use methods of birth control, masturbate or break the several hundred other moral codes prescribed by the Catholic faith.”

I wish to point out that there have been many religious leaders making sense. The current president of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, Bill Sinkford, is a religious leader. He has backed our BGILT community consistently on the question of equal rights in all areas, including marriage. Before him Presidents John Buhrens and Bill Schultz also supported our rights. The record of support from the Unitarian Universalist association goes back over 30 years. The Unitarian Universalist Association has been performing Services of Union for many years and currently performs same sex marriages. It was Unitarian Universalist ministers that took on performing public same-sex marriages in New Paltz New York when the mayor of that village was ordered to cease doing so. The Unitarian Universalist Association has also ordained Gay men and Lesbians as ministers for many years. I would suggest you do a web search (I know it is your policy not to print web addresses).

Ed Burditt