This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Re "Minn. OKs gay marriage; governor to sign" (Tribune, May 14):
Minnesota just became the 12th state to stop marriage discrimination. Last week it was Delaware. The week before that, Rhode Island. Soon Illinois. The state dominoes are falling.
In the not-too-distant future, students in civics classes will wonder what was the big deal about gay marriage. The same is true today about the time when women in America were so irrelevant that they could not own or inherit property, sign contracts, serve on juries or vote.
What were Americans thinking? Didn't they believe all are created equal?
Defenders of that now-discarded view of women saw suffragettes as destroying "traditional marriage." Funny how today's unchangeable "traditional marriage" is so different from that of 1848, the year of the Seneca Falls Convention.
Then as now, marriage wasn't under attack. It's a damn resilient institution, even as its traditions change with culture. The old-time, all-American traditional marriage of two centuries ago isn't good enough for anyone today.
Opponents of same-sex marriage really just oppose change. But notions of equality evolve and change is inevitable. We can't go back. We can only go forward, reforming our "traditions" according to our lived experience.
Jeff Hammond
Salt Lake City