Living: the ultimate team sport

Same sex marriage: we don’t have to agree

Posted on April 6, 2014 Updated on April 7, 2014

Fanaticism on both sides of gay-rights issue | Local News | The Seattle Times.  by Danny Westneat  Please read the attached article if you have not already done so.

A friend from college found me through Facebook the other day and we’ve spent a couple days catching up with each other via e-mail because it has been decades since we’ve communicated with each other.  I told Angie about my work with the elder-care community and I also mentioned that I’m a contributing writer for Grandparents Day Magazine (an Australian online publication), I have my own blog, and I’m writing my first novel.  “Irene, did you major in English at the University?”  “Nope, I majored in French.  I write not because I’m an exceptional writer, but because I have something to say.”

As is the case today.

Danny Westneat of the Seattle Times wrote another brilliant column in such a way as to make you say, “Hmmmm.”  What I mean is that at least for me, he opened my eyes as to how demanding some of our opinions can be.  For example:

Whether you support same-sex marriage or you don’t, you have the right to say how you feel about it.

Six years ago, Mozilla CEO, Brendan Eich contributed financially to Proposition 8 in California – a proposition that opposed gay marriage.  It was discovered that he had done so, and the newly installed CEO was immediately ousted.  He had, however, been with the company since the 1990s, and as Danny Westneat pointed out, “There was no evidence his views against legalizing gay marriage had any effect on his various jobs at the company, including his treatment of gay co-workers.”

Putting a more local perspective on this same subject, Washington State’s 2012 Referendum 74 that would allow same-sex marriage in our state, had 5,700 names on the anti-gay-marriage monetary contributor list, including those from Amazon, Starbucks, T-Mobile, F5 Networks, Microsoft, and Boeing, to name a few.  Many others were opposed to the Referendum and financially contributed against it: medical professionals, public-school teachers, a school superintendent, and a couple college instructors.  The measure passed, with the voters split 53.7% to 46.3% of valid votes placed.

Isn’t that grand?  Everyone was allowed to vote which ever way they wanted; a fabulous example of the right to believe/speak the way you want through the democratic voting process.  But do or say something that might give ones business a bad reputation in the eyes of the majority – or even the minority – then by God, you’ve gotta go.

Where do we draw the line?

Personally, I passionately voted the way I wanted to vote regarding Referendum 74, and although I might disagree with those who voted differently from me, I respected their right to vote which ever way they wanted.

In his article, Danny Westneat talked about the fanaticism that the Boy Scouts exhibited by ousting a gay Boy Scout leader because of who he is, not because of his work performance.  But the columnist added that the same fanaticism was displayed when the Mozilla CEO was ousted for what he believes.

If we are now requiring everyone to believe the way we believe; think the way we think; or vote the way we vote, aren’t we exhibiting a radical intolerance that nullifies our right to believe and speak as our conscience leads us?

I hope I never live in a world where someone figuratively puts a gun to my head to force me to think, believe, or vote the way they want me to.

Anyone who knows me, knows that would really piss me off, and it should make you pretty darn angry as well.