Thanks for the clarification

One of our candidates for Supervisor may have said more than he intended in a supposedly offhand remark…

From the online Leesburg Today:

March 28, 2007

At first I was shocked; then angry; then, after meditating on the comment, I must confess to being gleeful.

At the March 21 Loudoun Republican Women’s candidate forum, Catoctin District Supervisor candidate Robert Bruton introduced himself with this: “I’m married… [pause] …to a woman. [nervous laughter from audience] …It doesn’t hurt to say that these days.”

Let’s analyze this. “These days” are the days following enactment of the so-called “marriage amendment,” which purportedly protects marriage. Not my marriage; I’m married to the love of my life, who happens to be a man. For my family, it was a brutal political battle, during the course of which we asked many amendment supporters how their gay neighbor’s marriage threatens their own. The answer: “It doesn’t. What we are protecting is the ‘idea’ of marriage.” And what is that idea? Well, it’s that procreation requires a man and a woman. Hmmm, that idea doesn’t need much protection. So, if this “natural law” idea doesn’t really need protection, and if a majority of voters victoriously “protected” the idea anyway, why does Mr. Bruton find it necessary to say “it doesn’t hurt to say that these days”?

Maybe God graced Mr. Bruton with the understanding that marriage is really a covenant between two people who agree to love and honor each other until death do they part. That’s the popular understanding of marriage “these days.” Marriage is not reducible to anatomy, or to the crass statement “I’m married to a woman,” as if “woman” is an interchangeable part. Now we know: Even after the amendment vote and the offensive language added to our Bill of Rights, the “idea of marriage” is still not safe from one of the core tenants of Christian morality, to love your neighbor as yourself. Thanks for clearing that up, Mr. Bruton.

Jonathan Weintraub, Lovettsville
Board Member, Equality Loudoun