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It’s about civil rights

Aspen Times writer

Dear Editor:I often see letters speaking out against same-sex marriage but with no reason for their position (“Stand up for morality,” Aspen Times, July 16). Same-sex marriage has nothing to do with morality but has everything to do with bestowing civil rights which lift gay citizens from stigma and second-class citizenship. If you are a married heterosexual, imagine if you couldn’t get family medical insurance at work. You couldn’t visit your spouse in critical care nor make any medical decisions. You may not have rights to child custody, and after your spouse’s death you will not receive any retirement benefits as a surviving spouse, nor will you have any automatic inheritance rights. Laws that discriminate against a class of people, because of the way they were born, doesn’t pass muster in our secular democracy. I look forward to the day when full civil rights are extended to gay citizens. Kenneth WatsonFoxborough, Mass.