To the editor:

Why do many state and federal officials feel it necessary to define and legislate what marriage is? I’ve heard the argument that legal recognition of same-sex marriage threatens the moral foundation of traditional marriage. Who would be threatened, and in what way, exactly?

Opponents state that legalizing gay marriage would erode traditional family values. It appears those values are already eroding, and from within. They often fail to include that nearly one-half of traditional marriages end in divorce within seven years, and more than a million wives are brutalized by their husbands every day in their arguments.

I’m not saying that same-sex couples would be immune to the sad statistics of domestic violence and divorce that traditional married couples face. Yet those opposing same-sex marriage omit these unflattering aspects, while touting traditional marriage as the American moral gold standard. This disingenuous apples-and-oranges comparison is simply thinly veiled intolerance.

Legislators donning the morality police badge conveniently ignore the infidelity, corruption and other abuses within their own ranks, while teaching us the definition of what “real values” are. Pay no attention to the congressmen behind the curtain stuffing cash in the freezer, text-messaging naughty messages to pages and having affairs. Move along, citizens. There’s nothing to see here.

These shining, stalwart definers of virtue and defenders of our collective morality need to see to their own houses before they set about legislating just how others are to keep theirs. Such blatant hypocrisy, intolerance and bigotry make those badges look a lot less shiny.

Steve Craven,

Lawrence