I am writing in response to Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien’s letter to Gov. Martin O’Malley concerning gay marriage. I was raised Catholic by a family that believes being gay is a sin. My legal beliefs, in the separation of church and state, that America is not a country that has second-class citizens and that treating gay people unequally is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment, are unshakable.
It has never been the intent of liberals such as myself to attack the religious definition of marriage. I am only advocating for a change in the legal definition. Laws should only be based on the Constitution. As Catholics we should ask ourselves if we would be comfortable with politicians forcing their religious beliefs on us if the majority of politicians were Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, etc.?
Stanley is a parishioner of St. Gregory the Great in Baltimore and president of the Frostburg State University Young Democrats.