Letter: Speak against same-sex marriage

Dear Editor,

Cherished neighbors, why do we live in Wyoming?

Is it the wide vistas of beauty? Or is it that new 10 cents a gallon gas tax?

Why do we love Wyoming? Is it because of the feeling of freedom? Or is it that new lottery which draws in more young spenders than older.

Citizens across Wyoming, I am writing because I need your help. How your legislators vote affects me and my family.

What concerns me even more than the gas tax or the lottery is the preservation of marriage and family in Wyoming. Wyoming law, statue 20-1-101, defines marriage as a civil contract between a male and a female person. Did you know that Republican Wyoming legislators are attempting to change Wyoming law to redefine marriage as a civil contract between “two natural persons” instead of between “a male and a female person,” HB0169 in 2013 and HB0087 in 2014? Did you know 23 Republican legislators refused to prevent out-of-state same-sex “marriages” from being valid in Wyoming in HB0108 in 2014? We must uphold Wyoming law. When we define marriage as only between a man and a woman in Wyoming, then that applies to everyone who lives here.

Do the majority of people in Wyoming really want to legalize same-sex unions as marriages in Wyoming? Three things we need seriously consider. First, we can no longer support legislators who campaign one way as candidates and then vote another way as legislators or senators. Second, we can no longer remain silent about the only kind of marriage that we recognize in Wyoming is between a man and a woman. Thirdly, we must act to accomplish these goals. What can “we the people” do? We must put this issue to a vote by all the people of Wyoming, either by a legislative-proposed Wyoming Constitutional amendment or by a people-proposed initiative to enact law.

My Plan of Action:

Get the vote out for pro-marriage legislators and senators in Wyoming this November.

Tell your Wyoming social media contacts to urge legislators and senators to: a) Uphold Wyoming law 20-1-101 which defines marriage as “a civil contract between a male and a female person.” b) Pressure the Wyoming 2015/2016 legislatures to preserve marriage between a man and a woman by proposing a Wyoming Constitutional Amendment. c) Engage in an initiative to be put on the 2016 Wyoming general election ballot that reads: Be it enacted by the people of the state of Wyoming: Only marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized in Wyoming; providing that the uniting of two persons of the same sex in a civil union, domestic partnership, or other similar same-sex relationship contracted out of state shall not be given effect nor acknowledged in Wyoming.

We must work together all across Wyoming to protect and preserve marriage and family in the state we love. Let’s stand together for we know why we love Wyoming!

Jarene Fluckiger

Thayne