A Letter To Attorney General Pam Bondi
May 30, 2014
Attorney General Pamela Bondi
The Capitol, Plaza Level One
400 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050
Dear Attorney General Bondi,
I am very disappointed at your recent comments regarding marriage equality, which I read about in today's Daily Business Review. Your views are narrow minded, hateful and simply wrong.
To say that my family is any less important, any less stable and any less an "enduring family unit" than a family with one man and one woman is offensive and ignorant on your part.
My partner and I have been together for over fourteen years, longer than many so called "traditional marriages". Together with our son, our family is just as normal, just as close and just as important as any other family in this state.
You say, that our society has a "legitimate interest in increasing the likelihood that children will be born to and raised by the mothers and fathers who produced them in stable and enduring family units." Really? What about the children being produced into mother/father households who are abused, neglected and forgotten? What about all those innocent children (born of a father and a mother) who are in foster care and orphanages? Are those "enduring family units"? What guarantees that such stability exists in a "mother/father" household? How incredibly naive of you! I assure you that the stability and enduring family unit that you describe is visible and exists in same gender households. My family is living proof of that.
Court after court across the country has found that there is no legal basis to deny some Americans the dignity of marriage to the person he or she loves, yet you continue to hold on to unfounded arguments to legitimize a law that serves no purpose but to discriminate.
Defending this bigoted and unjust law is an exercise in futility. Why would you waste precious taxpayer dollars doing so when Judge after Judge (appointed by Republicans and Democrats alike) have 19 times in a row come to the inescapable conclusion that such bans are wrong and constitutionally indefensible. Attorneys General in states across the country have upheld their duty to the U.S. constitution by refusing to defend a law that so clearly violates basic rights.
I want my Attorney General to be on the right side of history and recognized the fact that 57% of our state supports same-sex marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court made it pretty darned clear last summer......you have no right to deny us equality, and neither does this state.
Sincerely,
Cathy Pareto
ACTION: You can send an email to Attorney General Pam Bondi by clicking here.