A recent opinion piece in a local newspaper complained that “wedlock offers a same sex couple a social institution that allows their lifestyle to forcibly become as legally binding and accepting as a heterosexual marriage, and again, forcefully through law to financially benefit them as a married couple.”

 While the essence of the piece is roughly correct, the insinuation that wedlock between same sex couples is somehow inferior to heterosexual couples, or that same sex couples deserve less public acceptance, or should refrain from forcefully seeking their equal rights, ignores American history.

From the time of Eve and the forbidden fruit, to the year 1920, A.D., women had suffered all manner of cruelty, loathing, and disrespect at the hands of the opposite sex. Historically, they had been considered not only intellectually inferior to men but also a major source of temptation and evil. In Greek mythology, it was a woman, Pandora, who opened the forbidden box and brought plagues and unhappiness to mankind. Early Roman law described women as children, forever inferior to men.

 Eventually, women began a quiet rebellion. And then, the first women’s rights convention was held in 1884 in the town of Seneca Falls, N.Y. From that day on, until 1920, women around the country came together as a powerful, social institution that challenged the male dominated status quo. They spoke loudly and forcibly of the eons of discrimination against them, solely for the reason of the gender they were born with. They fought long and forcefully for a legally binding equal rights law that would, at least, allow them to vote.

It is ironic now that many modern American women, who benefit greatly from the lengthy struggles of their ancient sisters, would now openly condemn or interfere with the personal choices of others in such vile and vindictive ways, many in the name of God - who is not without the means to handle his own affairs. His only son, Jesus, would suggest, “Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.”

Robert M. Lord

South Portland