California (XLIII) Congressman Gary Miller

Today I continue with Congressman Gary Miller, Republican, representative of California's 42nd Congressional District:

Dear Congressman Miller,

I write to urge you to change your stance on marriage equality. You have twice voted in favor of a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage throughout the U.S. Moreover, you have shown yourself hostile to the rights of LGBT citizens generally, receiving a rating of 0% from the Human Rights Campaign for each of the last three Congresses.

Exclusion of same-sex couples from the marital bond is fundamentally unjust. The Government Accountability Office lists 1, 138 benefits and protections that accrue to citizens from married status under federal law. Denying these to two adults who commit to love, honor, and protect one-another merely because they are of the same gender is arbitrary and discriminatory. As Loving v. Virginia and other Supreme Court cases have established, marriage to the partner of one's choice is an inalienable right, one that cannot be denied to any citizen even by a vote of the majority. Most outrageous is the harm done by our current state of marital apartheid to the thousands of children in the care of same-sex couples, who are cruelly denied the security that other children take for granted because the state will not sanction their guardians' union. To punish the child on account of the parents is sheer barbarism.

Although the 14th amendment already guarantees citizens "equal protection of the law," travesties such as Proposition 8 demonstrate that social prejudice profoundly impedes the recognition of marriage equality rights. The surest means by which to bring our laws and institutions into alignment with the basic rights of our citizens is thus to amend the U.S. constitution to read: "The right to marry shall not be abridged or denied by the United States or any state on account of sex or sexual orientation."

I have set out to write every member of Congress seeking support for this change to our basic law. Please know that millions of Americans consider the rights of marriage equality to be sacred and universal, and will fight on until they are realized for all citizens of our great Republic. I hope that on reflection you will have a change of heart and lend your support to this just cause. In any case I thank you for your attention and extend my best wishes for the success of the 111th Congress.

Sincerely,

Andrew Meyer