Same-Sex Rite Not a Civil Right

Re: “Scandal’s Shame, Massachusetts’ Pride,” Commentary, May 18: Robert Scheer shows his propensity, as with other proponents, to twist reasoning to hammer home that the gay marriage situation is a civil rights issue. It is not a civil right to marry. Governments have a right and a responsibility to set rules and restrictions in certain areas if they determine it is in the best interest of society.

I, as a heterosexual male, am restricted from marrying another male, just as a homosexual male is. All proponents of gay marriage whom I have heard -- when asked, “If gay marriage is made legal, what is to stop polygamists from using the same argument, or an individual who wishes to marry a 14-year-old, or his or her sterile sibling?” -- have dodged the question or simply cannot come up with a logical answer. (There is none.) Each of the restrictions within marriage (sex, number, age, etc.) can be questioned as to reasonableness or necessity but they cannot be argued using a civil rights or equal protection argument.

Larry Waller

Aloha, Ore.

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It filled me with a good feeling to know that somewhere in this democratic country, people are allowed to decide for themselves what constitutes marriage and commitment. With a divorce rate over 50%, gay couples desirous of marriage can only improve those statistics. This administration breaks all humane rules in its occupation of Iraq. No one is held accountable except the low-level soldiers who, it now seems certain, were following orders, yet it wants to decide how others must live. I think it’s time for the Bush team to leave office.

Robin Share

Sherman Oaks

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Are marriages made in heaven or in Massachusetts?

Robert S.

Rodgers

Culver City