![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
An open letter to Sen. Susan Collins....
Jun. 17th, 2019 11:24 am(Nota bene - this was sent to Sen. Collins’ office directly. I have sent similar letters to my two Senators. I’d urge each of you in this country to do the same especially if either of your state’s Senators is a Republican.)
Dear Senator Collins,
I realize since I am not one of your constituents, it’s unlikely that this will ever reach you, but as a gay man who spent part of his childhood in Maine, I have to thank you for your opposition to the nomination of Matthew Kacsmaryk to the Federal bench in the Northern district of Texas.
I’m acutely aware of the the role our Federal Courts play in defending the rights of minority people from the tyranny of the majority, particularly so when those minorities are threatened by opinions influenced by teachings of religious groups. In a country where the Bill of Rights is supposed to guarantee separation of church and state, the elevation to the Federal Court of someone who quotes the catechism of the Catholic Church as his personal guideline for what should, and more pressingly, should not be legal, is deeply disturbing to me.
Our public, predominantly non-Muslim, is often whipped into a frenzy of fear at the mention of Sharia Law; should we be comfortable accepting any particular church’s doctrine, simply because both said church and the bulk of this country’s population are nominally Christian? Our founding fathers thought not.
Senator, you and I are of similar vintage. We grew up in a time when members of the LGBT community lived within the closet for their own personal survival. As a child, I never dared to dream I would meet a man I’d be blessed to spend the rest of my life with, to publicly announce as my husband, and to enjoy the same legal protections that any heterosexual couple has on the local, state and federal levels, yet here I am, after 38 years since the morning I first saw him in church, and to my amazement still, with those hard fought for rights. We’ve been married almost 11 years, secure that should something happen to one of us, the other would not suffer financial discrimination and destitution, as so many of our community once endured when facing widowhood.
So I thank you Senator Collins, for your opposition and your unwillingness to see the clock turned back to an earlier and darker time for people like me.
Dear Senator Collins,
I realize since I am not one of your constituents, it’s unlikely that this will ever reach you, but as a gay man who spent part of his childhood in Maine, I have to thank you for your opposition to the nomination of Matthew Kacsmaryk to the Federal bench in the Northern district of Texas.
I’m acutely aware of the the role our Federal Courts play in defending the rights of minority people from the tyranny of the majority, particularly so when those minorities are threatened by opinions influenced by teachings of religious groups. In a country where the Bill of Rights is supposed to guarantee separation of church and state, the elevation to the Federal Court of someone who quotes the catechism of the Catholic Church as his personal guideline for what should, and more pressingly, should not be legal, is deeply disturbing to me.
Our public, predominantly non-Muslim, is often whipped into a frenzy of fear at the mention of Sharia Law; should we be comfortable accepting any particular church’s doctrine, simply because both said church and the bulk of this country’s population are nominally Christian? Our founding fathers thought not.
Senator, you and I are of similar vintage. We grew up in a time when members of the LGBT community lived within the closet for their own personal survival. As a child, I never dared to dream I would meet a man I’d be blessed to spend the rest of my life with, to publicly announce as my husband, and to enjoy the same legal protections that any heterosexual couple has on the local, state and federal levels, yet here I am, after 38 years since the morning I first saw him in church, and to my amazement still, with those hard fought for rights. We’ve been married almost 11 years, secure that should something happen to one of us, the other would not suffer financial discrimination and destitution, as so many of our community once endured when facing widowhood.
So I thank you Senator Collins, for your opposition and your unwillingness to see the clock turned back to an earlier and darker time for people like me.
