Christopher Shays: “today we are debating a Constitutional amendment drafted not to protect my marriage or my family--I see no reasonable…”

“today we are debating a Constitutional amendment drafted not to protect my marriage or my family--I see no reasonable way to argue it would--but rather to explicitly deny a portion of our society the right to marry and the benefits that accompany that kind of partnership. I do not advocate the legalization of gay marriage, but our Constitution is simply not the proper place to set this kind of social policy. I believed back in 1996, when I voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, and I still believe today, the decision about whether to recognize gay marriage should be left to the states. I can't help but wonder . . . Why are we doing this? What are we so afraid of? Gay men and women pass through our lives every day. There are wonderful teachers and leaders and role models who happen to be gay and sometimes we don't even know they're gay. I wouldn't be a Member of Congress today if it weren't for an extraordinary teacher I had in High School 40 years ago. I learned years later he was gay and that he had commuted from Connecticut to Washington, DC, every weekend in part to protect his privacy and his job. When I went to college, my understanding of gay people was impacted again by my wife's best friend. One day, she told us she too had found the love of her life. We were eager to meet the boyfriend she was so madly in love with, but we soon learned her love was not a he, but a she.…”