laws or chains

rights
freedom

opinion
choice

2 borrow the words of a friend...

"Our national creed is a declaration of natural rights not a compact for the preservation of social customs. It was defined over 200 years ago as adherence to certain self-evident truths. All are created equal and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Americans' fidelity to that creed ended the tradition of slavery because it was understood that slavery denied to the slave the universal rights America was founded in blood to protect. Women were constitutionally disenfranchised but in time that injustice was rectified because the nation realized such discrimination violated our national creed.

These rights are inherent and transcend the written law; they pertain to race, creed, religious preference, sexual preference, and the equal right of any individuals pursuit to happiness (as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others or causes injury to others).

When we compromise or stray from time-tested democratic principles -- that separate is never equal, those minorities must be protected against the tyranny of the majority -- we risk relating citizens to less than a whole person. As a nation, we have travelled down that road far too many times before.

Skin color, gender, and sexuality mean nothing in terms of equality. We are all human, thus making us all first-class citizens. And any law that states differently deserves to be abolished."

TY Diana