Massachusetts Affirms Gays’ Right to Marry

The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that the principle of equal rights requires the state to recognize the right of gay Americans to marry (“Massachusetts Grants Gays Right to Marry,” Feb. 5). This has been far too long in coming.

Rest assured that after May 17, tens of thousands of gay Americans will journey to Massachusetts and return to California fully married. Any person or agency that does not recognize these marriages, under the “full faith and credit” clause of our Constitution, will face the full force of highly expensive lawsuits until the day arrives that California also recognizes gay marriage.

May I suggest, then, that our governor begin a campaign to legalize gay marriage in order to forgo these eventual lawsuits?

Ray Shelton

Glendale

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Though many oppose gay marriage, nobody seems to be able to give a constitutionally adequate reason for denying civil marriage to same-sex couples. The sky didn’t fall when women got the vote.

Maybe it is time to get over it and give all Americans the right to the protections, benefits and obligations of civil marriage. I just hope that my marriage lasts longer than Britney Spears’.

Brooke Wolford

Los Angeles

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The front-page story is encouraging news in that the ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court demands that homosexual couples be treated equally under the law.

Regardless of the wishes of the religious right and others of their ilk, the unconstitutionality of banning gay marriage is clear, at least in Boston and all of Massachusetts.

The court is completely on point in its ruling that “the history of our nation has demonstrated that separate is seldom, if ever, equal.”

This year my domestic partner and I will celebrate our 30th year together. Ours is a relationship that rivals many heterosexual couples’. Our love is certainly as legitimate as that of heterosexuals. Yet we, as U.S. citizens, are not afforded the same legal rights as our heterosexual brothers and sisters.

If we are to be treated as second-class citizens, then it logically follows that we should not have to pay “first class” income and property taxes.

Kenneth P. Hahn

Los Angeles

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Quick! Raise the national security alert level to orange! I have to defend the sanctity of my marriage from ... can someone explain the threat again?

Nancy Chand

Culver City