GAY MARRIAGE

Reader disagrees with Archbishop's stance

J. Peter Sartain, Archbishop of Seattle, Washington State Catholic Conference, inadvertently gave a good reason to support gay marriage ("Archdiocese opposes gay marriage," Columbia Basin Herald, Thursday, Jan. 26). Sartain wrote that couples raising children need the special privileges and rights provided by marriage. I agree and add that this is a good reason to support gay marriage. Like it or not, some homosexual couples raise children too, and they need those special privileges and rights provided by marriage.

Or perhaps Archbishop Sartain wants to restrict marriage to just the biological parents. But if only biological parents can marry, then this is bad news for remarried couples, step parents, foster parents, parents who adopt, parents who use artificial means of reproduction with donated sperm or eggs, and childless couples. Let's accept that gay couples are merely one more variation of modern American marriages.

Dennis Knepp

Moses Lake