Portman’s shift belies majority
4/9/2013U.S. Sen. Rob Portman’s change of mind to support same-sex marriage on behalf of his gay son seems to have shocked conservatives (“Ohioans and gay marriage,” editorial, March 27).
Despite what is promoted and portrayed in mainstream media and in TV ads and programs, a large section of our society still believes in the traditional definition of marriage.
A cacophonous minority cannot silence the taciturn majority that believes that marriage is between only a man and a woman from all points of view — social, moral, religious, or anatomical.
The great men who assembled and signed the Constitution enabled this country to thrive by following the divine commandments, and not the twisted banality created by mortals.
ABDUL-MAJEED AZAD
Perrysburg
Church, state separation a must
According to the principles of our Founding Fathers, this was to be a country of no particular religion. The solution to the same-sex marriage controversy would appear to have a simple governmental solution.
Because church and state should be separated in matters that concern every American’s civil rights, the government can grant any couple who meets residency and age requirements a civil marriage license.
Religious officials can refuse to marry any couple based on their own religious tenets. Isn’t that what heterosexual couples do now when they can’t get married in a religion because they can’t pass theological muster? They get a civil marriage license.
MEL POMMERANZ
Lakeside, Ohio
Marriage issue only about money
Government sanctioning of same-sex marriage has nothing to do with marriage. It has nothing to do with religion either.
The only reason government gets into the marriage license business is to add money to its coffers, get more names into a computer database, find out who is living with whom, and determine how to tax them.
With this country on the verge of fiscal failure, politicians are engaged in a ridiculous debate over who can be married to whom and trying to improve their chances of getting re-elected.
I have thought that a government-issued marriage license was a wasted expense. Now I am finding out how expensive it is.
ALAN KINKER
Cherrylawn Drive
New bus station to be troublesome
We do not need a new bus station in downtown Toledo (“Bus station plan could kill theater,” Readers’ Forum, March 20). Who would clean up after the drunks and other people who spend time in the station?
The Valentine Theatre should continue to have a surface parking lot across the street.
ROSALIE OSBORN
Glendale Avenue