Florida's Amendment 2 - Ignorance and Hate Prevails in the South

When you are as old as I am you can grasp the near history that went before you, especially when one of your own hometown people is part of that history. Back in 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution refused permission for my hometown girl, Marion Anderson, to sing to an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. As a result of the ensuing furor, thousands of DAR members, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, resigned. Later that year, with some pressure from Eleanor Roosevelt, Marion Anderson appeared before an audience of 75,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. She sang “My Country 'Tis of Thee”, a song that speaks about liberty, freedom and the dignity of all Americans. This November Voters in Florida will be asked to vote on an issue that if passed, will diminish the lives of hundreds of thousands of Florida residents. It is falsely called the “Marriage Amendment” or “Amendment 2”. The Amendment is cleverly worded to suggest that “Marriage” should only be between a man and a women, but it goes on to say “no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized."
This statement in “Amendment 2” takes away the rights of those who cannot legally marry and others who choose “domestic partnership” over “marriage” to care for each other. It denies the right of unmarried but loving couples from visiting each other in hospitals when one in the relationship is stricken, it denies these couples from sharing health insurance and it places many taxpaying Florida citizens into a second class citizen status. I can assure you that those who are promoting this initiative are the same folks who would deny Marion Anderson the dignity to sing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” in a public forum.