Sent June 18, 2007

Senator Clinton,

I write to you because I believe you have basic human decency and that it is your desire to always make the right decisions for the people of the United States and all the people in the world whom you do and will affect and influence.  I therefore am compelled to communicate to you on the issue of marriage rights for homosexual persons; it is basic civil rights that I am speaking.  There are times when making the right decisions for society requires wisdom above and beyond that of the populace.  Your platform cannot come down to that of a popularity contest, because if you allow it to be so the work you are tasked with achieving in this world will be compromised.  You must know if what you want is to be a Woman President or a Great President.   

In the most basic sense, I am just a person, a human being who feels and thinks and dreams.  I am someone who believes in ultimate positive energy.  And I am someone who relies upon the wisdom given to me by the universe to try to understand God’s children who are different than me.  I could never assume because I am white that God prefers white; I do not assume because I am a man that God prefers men.  My fingers and my toes, my legs and arms, my face are not of my design, they are not of my choosing.  I accept them, such as they are, because they are what God has given me.  And for whatever reason God has made me such that I am homosexual.  Living in a place, a world, where the entirety of what I am is not universally accepted is most strange.  Indeed, as a young person, I felt I was “bad” because television and bibles and preachers and people told me I was bad.  I asked many gay people when or how they became gay and every single one told me, “I was born this way.”  I looked into the creation of the bible – the reason “Christians” justify their unChrist-like thinking – and find out it is a collection of stories written through the ages to alter societal behavior.  We all know and accept that much of what it says is simply discarded because it is considered illogical.  And yet, people choose to justify their bigotry on this book.

To segment from all of mankind those who are different in this one way is not God respecting.  People who say gay people choose to be so are ignorant; they are blind; they are fools.  For this society to say, “We do not accept you because your sexuality is different than ours,” is no different than telling us our legs or our arms are not acceptable and if we want to be respected we must cut them off.  What society dictates with no compassion and no responsibility is that we must die inside in order to fit its model.  You tell us we are not allowed to love as you do because God made us different in a way that you choose not to accept.  It is a fact the only “choice” being made is that of the persecutors.  I ask that you sit quietly and ask God if he truly meant to create children no one would accept; if he has a spite against certain souls.  If so, why are so many beautiful, why are so many talented, why do so many have loving hearts in this face of hatred?

Leadership is bravery. It is doing the right thing even when the people are not wise enough to know right from wrong.  This is what Jesus did.  This is what Gandi did.  This is what I ask that you do.

Thank you

Jonathan Jeffrey Kimes
jonkimes@gmail.com