Is an amendment for gay marriage necessary?

Re “Gay Marriage Amendment Getting a Presidential Push,” June 3

According to President Bush, I’m a threat to society. I live in Burbank with my partner and our two girls. We are employed, pay taxes, vote and, besides a random parking ticket, obey the law. I’m an American, and I even have a family: a mother, a father, two sisters, nieces, nephews, grandparents, aunts, uncles, a wife and two kids. We even have two dogs.

So instead of keeping our eyes on the ball for real threats like crime, child sexual predators or Osama bin Laden, Bush and his Republican cronies throw up a senseless political bone for their right-wing lunatic friends. Come on. Gays and lesbians will always exist and can never threaten heterosexual orientation. So who and what is the real threat? Trust me, we’re boring.

STEPHANIE THOMAS

Burbank

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What if, before the 1967 Supreme Court decision that struck down laws that banned interracial marriage, the Constitution had been amended to “protect” marriage from all those people of different ethnic backgrounds who were in love? Think about all the couples you know whose marriages would be voided.

So now the Senate takes up the so-called Marriage Protection Amendment to protect marriage from me. I’m gay. I’m in love with a wonderful man, and we’ve been together nine years this week. We are blessed to be raising a daughter, who just learned in preschool that in America we believe in liberty and justice for all, and how we’re all created equal. There are already laws preventing my legal marriage. And just like those embarrassing laws against interracial marriage, isn’t that enough for all our kids to look back and wonder how people could be so prejudiced?

LEE WIND

Pacific Palisades

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I commend Bush for backing a constitutional amendment that would prohibit same-sex marriages. The family is the fundamental cell of society and has its source in marriage. Marriage is ordered to the procreation and education of offspring and exists solely between a man and a woman who, through their personal gift of self to each other, perfect one another.

The proper nurturing of children who are the fruit of such unions makes an immense contribution to society. One does not need to belong to a particular political party to recognize that the family based on marriage is the best way to bring up happy, productive children.

Homosexuality is not unchangeable. The so-called gay gene has never been found.

Hopefully, Republicans, Democrats and independents will come together to support this amendment.

PAUL KOKOSKI

Hamilton, Canada

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Re “All you need is (real) love,” Opinion, June 5

Who would ever have thought that on the same day Bush was looking to add discrimination to the Constitution, Gary Bauer would be detailing all the reasons that marriage is beneficial? Thank you, Mr. Bauer, for advancing the arguments why marriage is good for all people who want to be in committed, honest, loving relationships.

CRAIG L. BYRD

Los Angeles