From: Interfaith Working Group Subject: IWG Gary Indiana letter Date: Sun, 16 Nov 1997 23:17:43 -0500 (EST) The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 12 congregations and religious organizations and 50 clergy from 15 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. November 16, 1997 Darryl Fortson Post-Tribune 1065 Broadway Gary, IN 46402 Dear Dr. Fortson: We read your November 5 column with great interest. We appreciate that you respect sexual orientation as an innate characteristic, encourage people to treat sexual minorities with respect, and that you prefaced your initial statements about God's will with a disclaimer that they were your personal opinion. However, we take great issue with the idea that the recognition of the normalcy of homosexuality dishonors the notion of liberalism, or constitutes an unreal faith. We believe that the notion of heterosexual supremacy dishonors love, but we do not believe that your belief to the contrary means that your faith is not real. No one would suggest requiring anyone to enter into a same-sex relationship, and since most people are heterosexual, it is not sensible to say that we cannot have a productive society with same-sex relationships. You obviously would not want your children marrying a person of the same gender, but many parents simply want their children to find someone with whom to be happy, and we should remember that parents have no legal say in who their adult children marry. We were also annoyed by your leap from same-gender marriage to anonymous promiscuous sex. One is an orientation-specific attempt to enter into a legal institution of which you approve; the other is a specific behavior with which you would obviously disagree no matter what the genders of the people involved. Fence-sitting is not a tenable position when it comes to equal legal treatment. We are not just talking about bolstering self-esteem; we are talking about recognizing equality, and on this point society is changing, and will change. We know this because we have faith, and our faith is just as real as yours. Sincerely, Barbara Purdom Christopher Purdom Interfaith Working Group Coordinators -- Interfaith Working Group Religious organizations, congregations iwg@libertynet.org and clergy supporting gay rights, http://www.libertynet.org/~iwg/ reproductive freedom, and the 215-235-3050 separation of church and state.