Dear Senator David Tomassoni (and your colleagues on the fence about the Marriage Bill),

In addition to our mutual love of the Iron Range, I presume that you and I have something else in common. When I was in seventh grade, someone came between my best friend, Bobby, and me. Her name was Jeanie. She was Bobby’s sister, someone who I hadn’t paid much attention to until I hit that age when, all of a sudden, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I imagine that you had similar feelings toward someone at that same age. When you think about that momentous time, I’ll bet you come to the same conclusion: We don’t create our orientation, it just comes upon us. So, I figure that we who were made straight ought to easily understand those who were made gay. We all receive our life-sentence at about age 12 or so, with gay kids no more able to change their orientation than you or I could ever have switched ours. Under such circumstances of childhood, it is undemocratic, not to mention unkind, for our government to grant rights to one group of citizens (us) and not to others.

Senator, when any two citizens ask you to help them join the ranks of those who would legally and publicly pledge their commitment to one another through thick and thin, until death does them part, I hope that you will honor their generous offer. Our society suffers from the decline of strong families. Members of married families grow to depend more on each other and less on government to meet their needs, and children raised in solid families are more likely to learn their parents’ good citizenship. Conservatives are correct - marriage matters very much. Please vote yes on the Marriage Bill.

Chuck Neil

Embarrass, Minn.