In 2005, Virginia Reversed Course

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

The faith and practice of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) always has been to seek that of God in everyone. From this, we have come to know that God’s love encompasses all creation. All people are the beloved children of God and are deserving of love and compassion in accordance with the example and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

As members of Richmond Friends Meeting, as citizens of Virginia, and as God’s children, we do not support the actions of the Virginia General Assembly that curtail the rights of our brothers and sisters who are gay and lesbian to enter into loving commitments and to receive the same legal protections in their persons, their families, and their workplace that are afforded to all others.

While Virginia’s recent constitutional history has moved toward including persons who had previously been excluded from the full protections and rights of the Commonwealth, the 2005 Assembly threatened to halt this noble course. It is our hope that the 2006 Assembly will stop this reversal and lift high its moral and legal obligations to allow all of us the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

DON MILLER, Clerk

Richmond Friends Meeting

Published March 25, 2005, in the Editorial Page of the Richmond-Times Dispatch.