Subject: IWG Ann Landers marriage letter Date: Fri, 10 May 1996 22:29:44 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Purdom The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 2 congregations, 4 religious organizations and 23 clergy from 9 faiths and denominations. If you are in the general Philadelphia area and represent a congregation or religious organization or are clergy, let us know if you want to be added - all faiths are welcome. We will also be happy to help start similar organizations in other areas. Visit the web page at http://www.libertynet.org/~iwg/ or http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/religion/orgs/iwg/ May 8, 1996 Ann Landers Box 11562 Chicago, IL 60611-0562 Dear Ann Landers: We understand that you are in favor of a broad domestic-partnership program, but against applying the term "marriage" to same-sex relationships. You have been a great supporter of the rights of sexual minorities over the years, so we think it's probably worth the effort to change your mind. The argument against calling the relationship "marriage" seems to be that it fundamentally violates the definition of the word, but that argument has been used in the past to deny marriage and other rights to other groups as well. In talking to our members and other religious groups about marriage, we have come to realize that the institution does not have a standard definition and many congregations, including Quakers and Reconstructionist Jews, have concluded that their definition of marriage says nothing about the genders of the individuals involved. The Quakers, for instance, believe that people get married in order to help each other understand the will of God. Rev. Paul Washington, an elder statesman of the Civil Rights movement, has spoken out repeatedly for marriage rights over the last month. At a panel discussion last week he said, "We have to decide if the past and tradition are carved in stone. If nothing ever changes, there is no hope, and if there is no hope then God is dead." Marriage has typically been offered only to those in power, and taken only from the powerless. Originally in England only members of the Church of England could be married. At one time, people of African descent could not be married legally in the South, and in California Asian-Americans were denied the right to marry until the early 1960s. The Japanese American Citizens League and the NAACP have, for this reason, endorsed civil marriage for same-sex couples. Domestic partnership offers something that by its very definition is separate and unequal. As equal partners in a marriage who divide our tasks according to our respective talents and not by our genders, we see nothing to be lost in the ex- pansion of marriage to include same-sex couples, and everything to be gained. Sincerely, Barbara Purdom Christopher Purdom Interfaith Working Group Coordinators