Principle

Below is a letter to Melissa Bean, the Democrat running for Congress in the 8th District in Illinois. You can learn more about her positions, including the one discussed below, at Project Vote Smart.

Dear Melissa,

I am writing to ask that you remove my name from your volunteer list. Please allow me to explain.

I support your candidacy because I believe strongly that Phil Crane should be replaced and that, given the choice, a Democrat is nearly always a better option than a Republican. For that reason, I will keep your sign on my lawn and vote for you in November.

However, as a gay man who contemplates daily what would happen if my partner were in a car accident, or how we can structure our finances to buy a home together that we both own, I cannot actively support a candidate with your position on gay marriage. Perhaps if you faced the difficult issues that we must face on a day-to-day basis you would understand how important legal protections are and how urgently our cause needs a voice from outside our community--a voice that it is within your power to provide.

I understand that opposing gay marriage is a sound political strategy in the 8th District, and I cannot blame you for it--not enough to withold my vote, in any case. But I hope that in your heart you understand the importance of this issue to the gay people in your district and to the people who love us. This may not be the sort of issue that wins you an election, but it is an issue that offers you the opportunity to demonstrate political and moral courage by standing up for the rights of a group of people who are denied those rights for reasons that, decades from now, will be thought as arbitary as the once widely-accepted reasons for condoning slavery or denying interracial marriages are considered today. It is also an issue so important to me that I cannot, in good conscience, call people and convince them to vote for you when my own feelings are mixed.

I wish you well and hope to celebrate your victory in November. I hope also that time and reflection will bring to you a change of heart on this important issue that will make a victory for you something more than a Pyrrhic victory for me.

Sincerely,
Richard Nelson, future constituent

[Update: I got a call from Melissa Bean's campaign manager. He is openly gay, and says that her full position--which is not detailed on her campaign site or by PVS--is that gays and lesbians should be able to have all the rights and benefits of marriage, such as hospital visitation and Social Security. She cannot support using the word "marriage" to describe these benefits, however.

Her campaign manager stressed that he believes Melissa will be a friend in Washington. I hope that he is right. Will I volunteer for Melissa between now and Election Day? That's something I need to ponder. Feel free to offer your thoughts.]