Doing the right thing.

Once in a while I get guff for being one of the few conservatives who support same sex marriage on principle. Sometimes people think it's a product of being from a red thinker clearly blue state. I maintain that it's not the case, but since there are very few conservatives from red states who would make a bold stance, I'm admittedly left out in the cold.

'till now.

The extremely cool Pam's House Blend is running a story about two straight, white, male Wyoming Republicans, Rep. Dan Zwonitzer and Rep. Pat Childers have officially gone on the record as being against a statewide constitutional ban on SSM.

Activist/Blogger Mike Petrelis shares an email he recieved from Childres:

didn't have a speech prepared. I simply told a simple story about my family and told the Rules committee how the legislation was simply wrong. I tried to separate how the legal aspect of marriage from the religious aspect.

My youngest son wanted to have the same anniversary as my wife and I. He and his wife signed the legal papers on Sept. 1 in a Starbucks Coffee Bar during the week. Their religious ceremony was held with the family attending the next weekend.

Another example that I gave was that I was left-handed, born that way. My mother was left-handed but forced to write right-handed by tying her left hand behind her back. People do not do things that way now.

Growing up in the south, I also told about the discrimination against blacks.

I then told them that my daughter was a highly intelligent woman and functioning quite well in an independent business in Montana and that she was gay. She and her partner live a quiet life in her community.

I had researched our statutes and provided seven pages, single spaced, of statute cites (statute number with a few words of description) noting where marriage was tied to civil rights of couples.

Those statutes, if gay couples married out of the state were to move to Wyoming, would deny them their civil rights under the proposed law. Our definition of marriage has been in place since the late 1800's and does define it as a civil contract between a man and a woman.

It does not make it right with the understanding of human makeup as known today.

It's sad that there is any objection to same sex marriage - republican, christian, or otherwise. If there are republicans with this sort of hutzpa in Wyoming, there damn well ought to be in Illinois.