February 24, 2004
(updated Mar 15 with a mention of the California Constitution)

Thomas Jefferson very famously wrote that one of our three most fundamental rights is the "pursuit of happiness." He says the right is God given, and it is inalienable.

It also just so happens that the pursuit of happiness is a right explicitly guaranteed by Article I Section 1 of the California Constitution.

As I look at the extreme happiness on the faces of 3000 couples in San Francisco, New Mexico, and Massachusetts, I cannot see how we cannot view this as an issue of equal rights.

Do all you want to give equal official treatment of gays by passing Domestic Partnership laws, and you will still be denying them one of the most fundamental rights.

How can anyone be so heartless as to want to take away so much happiness?

Richard M. Mathews

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