Postcards From The 8

Dear Scott,

I remember you telling me in the ramp up to the election that you would vote yes on 8 because you didn’t want your daughters being taught about homosexuality in school. Clearly that ad with the little girl who finds out that she can marry a princess had an effect on you.

I’ve recently learned that, according to the Center for Disease Control's Youth Risk Behavior Survey (1999), 33% of gay youth will attempt suicide. This fact has had a powerful effect on my thinking about the current marriage equality movement.

Knowing that ONE in THREE gay youth will attempt suicide makes intellectual arguments about bigotry, evolution, and the separation of church and state unsatisfying. It renders the semantic arguments about the word “marriage” a distraction. I am instead overwhelmed by a sense of urgency to save the lives of these children!

It’s possible that marriage equality in California might one day prompt a (perhaps uncomfortable) conversation between you and your daughters. I am not unsympathetic to the challenges of parents raising children in this highly sexualized society. However, I urge you to put the safety of our children first.

I believe that marriage equality is a first step to building a less bigoted, more tolerant and inclusive society in which our youth can be raised without the self loathing that leads to suicidal thoughts and actions. I believe marriage equality is an important step in building a society in which children don’t have their innate desire to live quashed by fear of their own difference. We’re all different and it’s time to stop thinking of other people’s differences as perverted or unnatural. We must. It could be the life of our own child that we save.

Best,

Sara K McLachlan
Los Angeles, CA