As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I support same-sex marriages.
Even though I don’t understand homosexuals, I support their rights as human beings. God created them, just as he did everyone else, but he endowed them with different feelings of attraction and intimacy.
All humans, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation, deserve the same protection and rights under the law.
Married heterosexual couples are protected in issues of joint ownership, government or workplace benefits, and making life and death decisions for a spouse, and it is discriminatory to judge a person unworthy of these same rights simply because of who they are.
Being different should never be the core issue when determining if someone is worthy of being treated as an equal child of God. Jesus taught us to love one another, to bear one another’s burdens, to visit the sick, the poor and the fatherless. Never has he charged us to reject anyone.
When we tell someone they are unworthy of the same human rights and protections we enjoy simply because they live and act differently than we do, I wonder if Jesus is pleased with how we are handling this issue.
Carlyle Potter
St. George, Utah
By Permission
