Apparently, it’s really not ‘we the people’

I want to thank Marsha Ternus, David Baker and Michael Streit and all of the other Iowa Supreme Court justices for protecting me.

I want to thank fair-minded legislators for blocking attempts to put my relationship up to a vote.

My heart is breaking that outside money, hyperbolic fearful rhetoric, religious ideologies and sheer ignorance has resulted in such a historically unimaginable injustice to you, the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community, my family and our state.

Governor-elect Terry Branstad has said that he is Catholic and believes something of this magnitude should be placed in the hands of Iowans by a vote on same-sex marriage.

Well, I am not Catholic, and my wife is not Catholic. We go to a church that accepts us as equals and married us. Reinstituting a same-sex marriage ban would infringe upon the free expression of my religious beliefs and those of my church.

Bob Vander Plaats should stop meddling in the personal lives of his fellow Iowans and in the fair, esteemed nature of Iowa's judicial system.

I am tired of conservatives hijacking words like “family” and “liberty” and “freedom,” and talking about “we the people.”

What about my family, my liberty and freedom? I, too, am “the people.” Just because there are more of you, doesn't make you right.

Kate Hickman

Iowa City