What would a marriage vote say about you?

I recently attended a party held by a same-sex couple. After 20 years together, they were finally able to legally marry, and they wanted to celebrate their union with friends.

Most of their guests were heterosexual couples, none of whom felt their marriages were threatened by our friends' commitment to each other. We laughed, shared stories and enjoyed each other's company; hardly an apocalyptic gathering.

How sad it is that many Christians look at gay and lesbian couples, and can only see sex, not a loving relationship. How infuriating it is when such people trumpet a hateful, narrowly sectarian interpretation of Scripture as the basis for law that we all must be bound by, Christian and non-Christian alike.

Putting the issue of equality under the law to a referendum is not democracy, it is demagoguery. However, if the Iowa GOP surrenders to its fanatic, volkisch base and succeeds in putting the question of same-sex marriage on the ballot, it will have presented Iowans with a challenge, and an opportunity.

Are we a people who can look our friends and neighbors in the eye and tell them with a vote, “I don't believe you are my equal, and I will let the worst of us deny you equality?”

Jeff Klinzman

Coralville