Dear Rev. Jackson,
I have been a fan of yours for many years. We once shared the stage in San Francisco at Davies Symphony Hall. Your message of equal rights and peace has always resonated with me. Through all the different political and social upheavals over the past decades you have been a strident voice in our society. I especially appreciate all the work you did to unite the African American and Korean communities during and after the L.A. Riots. Your faith was much needed during that very difficult time. Thank you for your activism and your commitment to making our America a better place.
I have spent many years as an activist. I learned from you that people can be encouraged to create change, just by listening to someone speaking the truth with love and compassion. Since to me you have always been this kind of truth-teller, I am shocked by your comments to the Harvard Law School last Monday concerning gay marriage.
This is the first time in my life I believe I have ever disagreed with your views. I was not present, so perhaps your words were taken out of context, but the sentiments were very clear, and as loud as bombs. I don’t wish to repeat your sentiments, they frankly are too upsetting for me and coming from you makes them doubly hard to hear. Your stance against gay marriage is both troubling and startling and in sharp contrast to everything you have done to raise minority status as well as consciousness in our nation.
I ask you to look back at the many gay and lesbian politicians and activists you have known in your long career. I am sure that many of them might be your friends, or at the very least, have won your respect as men and women devoted to making this country better for all the people who live within its borders and beyond. Would you say that they were less than human? Would you consider them deserving of fewer rights than other Americans? Do you believe that gay and lesbian Americans are unworthy of love?
If gay marriage is unacceptable in the culture you were born and raised in, does that make all cultural mandates worthy of law? If so, then my marriage is invalid because the person to whom I am married is not Korean and interracial marriage is not accepted in Korean culture. Should we really receive less than other couples who have married within their race? Aren’t I obligated to take a stand against my culture in order to uphold not only justice and equality, but what my heart would ask me to do? Is it morally wrong to love one another because we do not look like the other married couples we might see on television?
Should we be corrected by society at large and punished by our government by receiving less than fair treatment because we are not white? How is this different if my spouse and I were the same gender? If being gay were a choice, would people actively choose to have less acceptance and more prejudice heaped upon them by society? If race were a choice, wouldn’t I choose to be white?
I ask you to review your position on same sex marriage. If we were a truly free nation, this would be above argument or opposition. As a civil rights leader, shouldn’t you choose equality for all Americans?
Respectfully,
Margaret Cho