Letters to the editor

I remember when California voters in 1964 passed an initiative to legalize racial discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled that to be unconstitutional, just as the courts have banned segregation and laws against mixed-race marriages. Some people railed against these court decisions, but they eventually got back to their own lives.

Courts have often led the way in banning discrimination, but hopefully California voters will reject the discriminatory initiative targeting same-sex marriage. Live and let live.

Bill Collins

Pacifica, Calif.



Please tell me why an initiative on the November ballot barring same-sex marriage (a form of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation) is in accord with the California Constitution, when the state Supreme Court has already ruled that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is unconstitutional?

Milton Gonsalves

Cathedral City



With all the troubles facing us, I would think that the yahoos in the hinterlands would have more important things to worry about than same-sex marriage. But, sadly, that's not the case. And if they find my tone insulting, so be it; I'm insulted by their idiotic initiative.

I'm 70-plus, straight and have been married to the same woman for more than 45 years. I don't feel a bit threatened by gay marriage.

Martin Parker

Thousand Oaks

The wisdom of the aged

Re "Make it a gay-old time," Opinion, May 30

Somebody should enlighten Joel Stein on the subject of "gay culture." He inadvertently suggests that California's non-senior population is wiser and more in tune with the facts of life than the writers of the Bible. He asks us old folks to vote against our collective "wisdom and experience" and embrace same-sex marriage.

Does Stein seriously believe that same-sex "romance" is a relatively recent cultural phenomenon or overnight sensation? Is that why it has been condemned in Scripture for thousands of years?

Perhaps Stein and much of the under-50 crowd are comfortable "voting against" the word of God, but many of us older characters feel that's asking just a bit too much.