Gays are again an election issue: Washington state legalizing same-sex marriage, Utah refusing to ban discrimination against gays and the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court overturning Proposition 8.

Last week, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said gays should not be discriminated against, but he asserted that marriage is a "privilege," "not a right."

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Santorum said "it is an intrinsic good" for civilization "that men and women come together as nature [and God] intended it to form bonds to have children, to raise children with their mother and their father as the best opportunity for society to prosper and do well. And as a result of that, we extend … certain privileges to people who do that because we want to encourage that behavior. … Two people who may like each other, or may love each other, who are same-sex, is that a special relationship? Yes it is, but it is not the same relationship that benefits society like a marriage between a man and a woman."

Why can’t Utah conservatives join Santorum in rejecting discrimination against gays?

Whether "right" or "privilege," if government-sanctioned, it must be equal.

Why isn’t a committed, loving, gay, child-rearing couple also an intrinsic good for society?

Thomas Campbell

Salt Lake City