Comments on: A Step Towards Equality

By: David Lauri

David Lauri — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 13:53:29 +0000

@Gary Leitzell: As you well know, we have already changed the definition of marriage of the years. Women no longer subsume their identities into their husbands’ upon marriage, women have equal property rights, marital rape is no longer legal, divorce is available. The definition of marriage has changed over the years. You can’t seriously think that changing the definition of marriage to include equal marriage rights for consenting adult same sex couples would lead to a slippery slope of changing a bunch of other words in our language, can you?

Moreover, courts around the world and our country have recognized that same sex couples deserve equal marriage rights, as have many enlightened legislatures around the country and some legislatures in our country.

I’m sure you’re not a horrible person, but I think you’re horribly misguided on this issue and on the issue of what it means to be a politician. If you think your job is only to do what the majority wants, then we don’t need politicians. We have the Internet and could institute “American Idol” type voting on all issues, no need for mayors or presidents or city councils or Congress.

Many people–although not you, apparently–think instead that politicians should not just follow the will of the majority but instead should lead. You as mayor of Dayton could lead on the marriage equality issue, but instead you would rather say “whatever the majority wants is okay” and “it’s dangerous to change definitions.” That’s a horribly low standard.

By: Gary Leitzell

Gary Leitzell — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 19:45:07 +0000

@ David Lauri. After 3 years you have never been able to get over the statement that I made to you in a private email. Let me put it another way. If we are allowed to change the dictionary definition of the word marriage by a vote of the people then we can change the word “Stalker” to include people who post notices on telegraph poles by the same vote of the people. On the marriage equality issue, this is what I have told people. As an individual I have no problems signing that. However there is no page for individual support. If I sign it has to be as the Mayor of Dayton. Being the Independent mayor who is elected to support the majority of the citizens, I can not be certain that the majority of citizens feel the same way as I do. Therefore at this moment in time I have not elected to sign it. Let me point out that as the Independent mayor I am held to higher standards than any other mayor of Dayton has been in the last 40 years. If I were a member of either party, I would be expected to behave in certain ways. Since I am a member of no party I have to behave better than both. One day you will realize that I am not what you have lead others to believe that I am.

By: Kevin Kryston

Kevin Kryston — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 20:05:38 +0000

Nice to see this happening, especially because it shows that issues such as gay rights are becoming less of a “liberal vs conservative” issue and more of an equal rights issue.

By: Jason Schwarz

Jason Schwarz — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 19:20:02 +0000

It’s great to see a politician actually standing by a position concerning unions of gay couples.

By: David Lauri

David Lauri — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 14:07:19 +0000

While I appreciate the mayor’s support of this baby step towards equality, for someone who always supported equality he took special care, unbidden, when running for mayor to point out his concerns about the dangers of redefining a traditional word like marriage, and now that he is in office he has not yet signed up, as have mayors of cities around the country, to go on record as supporting marriage equality.