Gramley's Attacks Demonstrate An Appalling Lack of Understanding of What America is All About

Submitted by David L. Martin

In their attacks on Venango County's gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) residents, Diane Gramley and the American Family Association demonstrate an appalling lack of understanding of an essential principle of what America is all about. That essential principle, All Men Are Created Equal, was set forth simply, yet eloquently and unequivocally by our founding fathers in the opening lines of our Constitution. That same principle, All Men Are Created Equal, so revolutionary in its conception that it stunned the old world long-accustomed to class, prejudice, and privilege is the same principle held dear, respected, and embraced by successive generations of Americans since the country's founding.

Today, that same constitutional principle guarantees equality and fairness to each and every citizen regardless of color, regardless of sex or gender, regardless of disability or age, regardless of ethnic origin or sexual orientation. When Diane and the AFA attack the GLBT community, they attack as well our most fundamental belief in the equality of all citizens expressed so unambiguously in our Constitution as surely as if they attacked a person because of his age, his color, his nationality, or his personal religious beliefs. And none of us would deny that this is certainly wrong and most un-American.

We know from even a cursory study of American History that not all Americans, particularly those holding peculiar religious beliefs, have been willing to set aside their familiar discriminatory practices against defenseless minorities. Bitterly determined to cling to their beliefs in their own racial superiority and often citing Biblical passages as well as distorting or falsifying scientific studies in their defense, they plunged the country into a bloody Civil War and later pursued a course of economic exploitation of people of color we now know as segregation.

Likewise, these same religious radicals resisted and railed against equal rights for women, viciously attacking suffragettes and feminists, again citing Biblical passages coupled with dire warnings of the collapse of the Republic as their justification. Fair minded Americans rejected these odious rantings and embraced the essential equality of both women and people of color. Much to their consternation, the Republic not only survives, it thrives and its people flourish!

Equality and fairness for all, as the Founders predicted, is good for us all and an essential component of democracy.

Once again wrapping themselves in obscure and selectively chosen passages of the Bible, these self-appointed faux-religionists aggressively harass, attack, persecute, and lobby against equality and fairness for GLBT Americans causing immeasurable pain and suffering in the process. But just as earlier generations of patriotic Americans rejected unfair and unequal treatment of people of color and of women, so today, polls, as well as legislation and recent court decisions, confirm that citizens across the country are increasingly rejecting unfair and unequal treatment of GLBT Americans.

The constitutional principle, All Men Are Created Equal, remains intact and strong, respected and revered, as does the frequent admonition of Christ to his followers to "love one another...."

Much to their credit, the vast majority of fair-minded citizens of Venango County recognize that both Diane and the AFA are not only un-American but also un-Christ-like in their deviation from both the principle of equality and fairness contained in the Constitution but also for their deviation from the admonition of Christ to love, honor, and respect one another contained in the Gospels.