I was very honored to have been a sponsor at a Garden Party for Marriage Equality held over in Seattle last weekend. It was co-hosted by the owners of They Lobby Bar and was an extremely well-attended event that raised over $20,000. We were also lucky enough to have Senator Ed Murray as one of the guest speakers, who gave a great speech detailing the efforts that have been made so far.

I have been very invested in this fight for a long time now, but it was actually being surrounded by a group of like-minded people that really brought the importance of this to mind. This really is a civil rights movement for our time, and should not be even remotely thought of as anything else.

There are a great deal of rights and privileges that go along with marriage that gay people should be just as entitled to as straight people, but there is a lot more at stake than that. By saying that gay people are not entitled to getting married we would be sending a very strong and powerful message to people that homosexuality it not seen as a normal thing and that homosexuals are not a valid part of the community.

If you would like to stop and consider that for a moment it will be detrimental on a large number of grounds and most importantly for the children of gays and lesbians but also children who identify as being gay themselves. The news has been full of religious leaders coming out against the gay community and if we allow that to continue we are not allowing our gay children to feel valued.

I urge everyone that supports the full inclusion of LGBT rights to take the time to talk to people that are either against R-74 or are on the fence. You can volunteer with the Washington United for Marriage group – they are carrying out phone banking events all the time on our side of the water now.

Thanks, on behalf of the whole LGBT community.

Shaun Kelly, Kirkland