Bigotry works both ways

Anna Piontek’s recent article “Indiana Bigotry” (Feb. 4) is mere rhetoric. Laws that prohibit gay marriage do not violate the separation of church and state and are not hateful. In fact, Anna’s own criticism of Hoosier legislators reflects a narrow mind and lack of charity; she presumes that anyone in favor of a marriage amendment is bigoted, moronic and a religious fanatic. Violations of the establishment clause only occur when a law endorses a particular religion. But what religion would this amendment endorse? Obviously, none — the idea that it would is nonsense. Anna seems to think that since legislators were motivated by religious reasons, that means the law is inappropriate. But, this standard is impossibly high. Imagine if a Hoosier legislator voted for a law which would grant free health care to every Hoosier child. Suppose he does this because he thinks every child is a special, valuable gift from God and should be taken care of. Would this law be unacceptable because this legislator had a religious motivation? Does it violate the separation of church and state? Of course not. What it seems Anna really wants is for there to be no religious people at all in the Hoosier legislature, or, at least, no people who think their religion tells them anything at all whatsoever about their value system. Who is the one being bigoted here?\nFinally, there are many purely secular reasons for having laws which recognize opposite-sex marriage but not other kinds of marriage. If Anna had taken the time to read the arguments from recent cases involving gay marriage around the nation, she would have known this. For example, in 2006 the New York Court of Appeals in Hernandez v. Robles concluded, “that there are at least two grounds that rationally support the limitation on marriage [to opposite-sex couples].” New York courts, not exactly bastions of religious fanaticism and so-called bigotry, held that there are rational grounds for limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. Our Hoosier legislators and religious Hoosiers who agree with them are not bigoted, moronic or fanatical. Anna — you can do better!