Parents of a Gay Daughter in Minnesota Speak Out on Catholics for Marriage Equality Video

At Believe Out Loud, Sara Snyder makes available a powerful, moving video of two Minnesota parents of a gay daughter discussing the impending vote in Minnesota about amending the state constitution to inscribe discrimination in it.  As I've repeatedly noted here, the Catholic church in Minnesota is spearheading the attempt to write discrimination into the state's constitution, and is spending huge amounts of money to achieve this goal.  The Catholic bishops of the state have organized teams in each parish to pressure parishioners to vote yes on the amendment.

But as Snyder notes, Catholics for Marriage Equality encourages Catholics in the state to recognize that one's Catholic faith may lead to precisely the opposite conclusion than the one the bishops want Catholics to reach: namely, that discrimination in the name of God is wrong, and that LGBT people and their families deserve the same rights afforded to everyone else.  A majority of American Catholics support marriage equality.  The video is from Catholics for Marriage Equality.

Here's some of what Darlene and Tom White have to say in the video:

My culture and my church said, This is how you're supposed to be, and if you're not like that, you're less than of a person.  And that brought out a lot of feelings that I hadn't felt toward my church before that, and ended up with leaving that institution--not the faith.  The main challenges came, unfortunately, from our church.  They're focused on dogma and doctrines and rules and power over.  And what they could learn if they opened their hearts is the same thing we all learn when we open our hearts: we enlarge the circle of love and compassion.  They're trying to protect marriage or family or both, and in actuality, they're doing exactly the opposite.  They're damaging any relationship and any family unit by the legislation that they're proposing.  So I hope that enough people will see through it.

And I hope right along with Darlene and Tom and the good folks of Catholics for Marriage Equality, to whom I have just given donations (in both Minnesota and Maine--a point I mention not to toot my own horn in any way, but to remind readers that this good group deserves as much assistance as any of us can offer it).