"Gay rights and all rights"

By Scott Wagner

Letter to the Editor of the Observer
RE: Gay rights and all rights

Jacob Zipifel’s September 29^th letter is astounding. It is so full of doublespeak and rhetoric that it is difficult to decipher whether or not he actually believes what he says, or simply is regurgitating what he has learned from year after year of Catholic schooling.

If interracial marriage were illegal, but it were legal for a black man and a black woman to get married (which once was the case in this country), Zipfel’s argument completely justifies this type of legal discrimination; because, according to his “logic,” black people could marry each other. They were thus equal citizens, right?

Give me a break.

The fact is, in our secular society, a marriage between two people confers hundreds of rights—visitation rights, tax breaks, you name it—on both the state and the federal levels. Thanks to people like Zipfel, an adult who wants to marry another adult is not necessarily allowed. I don’t remember giving Mr. Zipfel or the government the authority to ban anyone’s wedding (or grant their wedding either…where is that in any Constitution?).

Of course he must mention NAMBLA. Let me be clear, then: children, Mr. Zipfel, are not consenting adults. How many years of law school does it take before they teach you that small detail? Your analogy is, at best, ineffectual; at worst, it is ignorant.

If we, the students of Notre Dame, held a vote to disallow you from ever marrying, Mr. Zipfel, would the outcome of that referendum give it any moral or ethical authority? Absolutely not. You are an individual, and your sovereignty as such is not open to the outcome of any election. The same applies to gay people, whether you like it or not.

And no, despite what you say, moral conduct of a minority is very clearly delineated without the help of the Bible. Individual liberty, the bedrock upon which this nation was founded, and a principle in which our deist Founders believed, does that for you. You may appeal to the Bible all you want, Mr. Zipfel, but it will not help you in court when you become a lawyer. I hope that makes sense, or you’re going to have some difficult cases in your future.

Appealing to liberty is not demagoguery. Appealing to the Bible, NAMBLA and “gay men can marry women” is.

In fact, it is more desperate than anything else.