Marriage and Equality in 21st Century America

Re “High Court Halts Gay Marriages,” March 12: My partner and I were scheduled to be married at San Francisco City Hall on April 8. This action has been banned. I cannot tell you the sadness we felt hearing this news. Yes, you can disagree with same-sex marriage and yes, you can disapprove. But perhaps someone would explain to me why two people who have been together for 16 years, whom you don’t know and will never meet and who want to get a license to do something that does not affect anyone but themselves, are now on the receiving end of state-sanctioned lawful discrimination?

Tracey Dodd

Hermosa Beach

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Not all heterosexual couples have children, and divorce is not illegal, so what is this “sanctity” of marriage that gay couples are going to somehow ruin if they are allowed to be granted the same right to marry that my twice- and thrice-divorced parents have?

Angela Rigor

North Hollywood

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Government should get out of the marriage business. It should not define marriage, perform marriages or give any consideration whatsoever to marital status. Marriage should simply be a religious ceremony, and marital status should have no bearing on anything insofar as the government is concerned. No special governmental benefit should accrue to married people. All inequities between married and single individuals should be abolished. This would, of course, require significant changes in statutes governing taxes, inheritance, adoptions, medical decisions, etc., but it would provide for equal treatment of all.

Jim Shade

West Covina

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Re the “wedding” of Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg and her partner, Sharon Stricker, in San Francisco (March 9): What anarchy! When those who have been selected and have sworn to uphold and enforce the law do not follow it for their own purposes, how can they be trusted to make the laws?

Robert Ganahl

Rancho Palos Verdes

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A practical approach to resolving the gay marriage controversy would be to pass a law legalizing same-sex unions. Don’t label the new law “marriage”; rather, use the label “same-sex union.” Additionally, on the state and federal level, enact identical procedures for same-sex unions as there are for marriage.

Allan Streller

Santa Monica