Gerald Boyum asserts that the priority for marriage is procreation, that those who must have third-party intervention to conceive are unnatural, that marriage based on acknowledgement of feelings 'guts' the requirements of marriage, and that a family without parents of both sexes “fails in its primary purpose” (“Headed for extinction,” Forum, July 25). In his brief letter, Boyum managed to offend everyone who must have medical assistance to conceive, everyone who can't conceive, everyone who is a single parent, and everyone who believes that love is indeed a very good basis for marriage.

He moans that gay marriage laws will result in the extinction of humanity. But the U.S. population is growing, as are fertility rates. Some of that increase is due to childbearing lesbian couples, and none of it comes from those of us who are heterosexual but infertile. So who is saving us from extinction?

Sorry, Boyum, but I still don't understand why some consenting adults should be forbidden to speak the words “I do.”

Jill Christensen

Holladay