I call on you to support the Domestic Partnership legislation, Senate Bill 12. It will provide basic legal protection for unmarried couples, seniors, people with disabilities, and gay and lesbian families. Without it, loving couples can be denied hospital visitation rights, adoption, inheritance, property rights, and on and on, that married couples take for granted. Tell our leaders that everyone deserves basic equal rights and that all couples should be able to openly love and protect their families.
Gov. Bill Richardson has said he will sign the bill into law if it gets to his desk, but it is being blocked by two senators, one of which is our own Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Española. Last year when I confronted him on his views he told me that “in my heart of hearts I believe in equal protection for all, but my constituents will not support Domestic Partnerships.”
He hides behind his “constituents” rather than lead. He told me his constituents were the Catholic Church and his catholic citizens.
America has a long history of overcoming the tyranny of the minority by the majority. It is only in the last 100 years that women gained the right to vote, that blacks fought and won basic civil rights, that Native Americans were given control of their lives and lands. It was only last month that we put a black man in the White House. America can overcome this last vestige of discrimination. We in New Mexico can lead the way by showing that we value all of our families.
At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama gave a powerful speech on religion. He said, in part, “We have seen faith wielded as a tool to divide us from one another – as an excuse for prejudice and intolerance. Wars have been waged. Innocents have been slaughtered. For centuries, entire religions have been persecuted, all in the name of perceived righteousness.”
Join me in rejecting this divisiveness. I live an open and honest life as a proud HIV positive gay man with my partner. We serve the communities of Northern New Mexico as teachers, community arts activists and supporters of equal rights for all New Mexicans for more than 20 years. Let me and my partner have the same rights that everyone else enjoys so freely.
This bill will also help those who live unnecessarily shameful and guilty lives. They will see that it is safe to come out of the closet, to be open about who they love and care for. Gay people are everywhere – they are civic leaders afraid to support legislation for fear of raising questions, priests afraid of being thrown out of the church, they are our brothers and sisters who fear being ostracized by their families. Help all of them by declaring your support of domestic partnership.
Call, write, or e-mail Sen. Martinez and tell him that you are one of his constituents. Tell him he has a duty to lead, to provide basic civil rights for all. Tell him that our founding fathers were clear about the separation of church and state. Tell him to change his vote on SB 12.
Call Senator Martinez at 505-986-4389 or email him at richard.martinez@mnlegis.gov
Roger Montoya is a Velarde resident, community arts activist and director of People in Motion, a group that teaches dance and gymnastics to children.