Today’s Salt Lake Tribune includes the following public forum letter that I think is particularly well-written.

So, I’m sharing:

Values Not Threatened

Frequently, people express resentment about gays “pushing their agenda” because they seek the right to form families that enjoy the legal and social legitimacy of marriage. I suppose African-Americans were pushing their agenda during the Civil Rights movement. And women, to the dismay of many, continue to push their agenda in seeking equal rights and opportunity.

The righteous and the afraid presented the same argument then as we hear today: It is against God and it will destroy the values we hold dear. In spite of this hysteria, we survived these changes and will weather and survive many more as we continue to evolve as human beings.

As a person with many gay and lesbian friends, I consistently find that we have more in common than not. We have children and mates and jobs and extended families. Their sexuality is none of my business, and vice versa. They deserve every right that I am afforded, including that of marriage.

If, as a society, we are able to rise above the myth of “lost values,” we will remember a simple truth that remains unchanged through the decades: Equal rights for any group does not diminish the rights of another. No external force can destroy one’s values. That happens from the inside out, and only with permission.

Katy Stevens
Salt Lake City