Dear Gov. Bredesen,
I recently read today in fact about the bill proposed to ban gay marriage, and the possibility of banning us from adopting children. I was really taken aback by the blatant disregard our lawmakers have for the whole of society. We in this country scream about how free we are and how this is the land of equality, then tell me please why then do the lawmakers in this state and this country constantly discriminate against the homosexual community. If this is the land of the free, and a land of equality, why then do you and the lawmakers continue to to force your unequal and freedom restricting, civil rights impeding religious thinking on the citizens of this state? Why do you not think about the whole of the citizenship which includes the gay and lesbian communities? I know this sounds like an anger letter, well to an extent it is because we present ourselves in this country as the free, and equal, but constantly there is unequality and discrimination forced upon myself, my partner, and our friends in the gay and lesbian communities. Like I said I know this sounds like and anger letter, and it is somewhat, but it is also a letter of confusion as to how can we call ourselves free and equal if all members of the citizenship are not equally considered, that some of us are discriminated against because we love differently. So please Governor Bredesen if you can explain to me why a ban on gay marriage and a ban on gay adoptions (by the way some of us make great parents) would even be considered in this state and country? Why not take a step forward as the Governor of Tennessee and show the rest of the country that we are a progressive state and that you and our lawmakers consider the whole of its citizenship not just the ones who seek to take issue with the way people love each other because they don't like it or harbor some other feelings against it. I implore you as my Governor to reconsider your position on this issue and look at it from the stand point that the gay community just loves differently, and to not align yourself with a right wing faction that seeks to employ their own agenda. Remember this your Honor when you speak of the State of Tennessee that if a ban on these issues passes that you no longer speak for this state as a whole but as a sounding board for those who seek to push their own agenda, for if a ban does pass you will have lost a voter and any of those I can take with me, for you will have lost sight of what is free and equal for Tennesseeans.
A concerned citizen and voter,
Vincent J. Hill
