Fix people, not marriage

That Greg and Anne Jones support gay marriage and yet call themselves Catholic (July 14) is consistent with a contemporary trend in that words mean nothing. What next, Democrats voting Republican? Vegetarians eating meat? Men marrying men?

The trend toward nebulosity is spurred by people who mistake sameness with equality. The word marriage need not be fundamentally altered in order for gay people to achieve equality, any more than a woman needs to be called a man in order to do likewise.

The seeming magic that gay people attach to the word marriage is an illusion.

The issue that people are not addressing is that a huge percent of people who call themselves gay were not born that way, despite protestations. For most, there are myriad other possible contributors: psychological, social and situational. But this may imply a need for introspection and personal work, so they’re resisted as possible contributors. Ironically, they also imply equality. After all, we’re all affected by our environments and could benefit from introspection.

Marriage as it stands is a beautiful thing and doesn’t need fixing, but there are many broken people who’d like to fix it rather than themselves.

Tom Brooks

Spokane