MERI Blog
Politifact reporter misses the forest for the trees
Below is a letter to the editor which was submitted to the Providence Journal today by Marriage Equality Rhode Island board Chair Martha Holt in response to last week’s PolitiFact story
“Gene Emery’s Politifact analysis is the quintessential example of missing the forest for the trees. It is simply a fact that Rhode Island and federal law use terms that connote or affect marriage over 1,700 times. To focus so narrowly on whether each of those statutes provides some sort of tangible benefit completely misunderstands the right at issue in the denial of marriage to same-sex couples: the right to equal treatment at the hands of our government. The fight for marriage equality has never been just about improving the financial position of gay and lesbian Rhode Islanders. It is about the harm we experience every time a law says, “but not the gay families,” whether that law allows us to access Social Security or Family and Medical Leave protections, holds us accountable for the same tax liability or conflict of interest rules applicable to every other married couple, or accords us the simple dignity of being recognized as a family when we cross the borders in and out of our country.
We fully accept that the right to equal treatment will include some disadvantages for our families, and we know that some of these protections are obscure. The key here is that all of these rights, protections, obligations, and responsibilities are part of what it means to be married in the eyes of the government, and it is the exclusion of same-sex couples from them all that we are seeking to end.“
Martha Holt, chair
Marriage Equality Rhode Island Education Fund
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Tony P on April 21, 2011 at 6:53 pm
I’m hoping somebody left this as a comment on the PolitiFact site. Go Martha!