CASE AGAINST MICHIGAN AMENDMENT: From the Detroit Free Press

Judy Fertel Layne says she can't recall a decisive moment in the formation of her political views. ...

But she says her principles have always been clear: "I would describe myself as very liberal."

Today, she is paying close attention to the marriage amendment, and can hardly say enough bad things about it. Fertel Layne considers the proposal to define marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution wrongheaded, unjust and morally wrong. ...

What she says she does know is that treating people differently based on their sexual orientation is discriminatory, and "anything that is discriminatory really offends me."

That impression developed over the years, Fertel Layne says, and came into sharp focus after she became a lawyer specializing in estate planning, where she became increasingly vexed by the legal hurdles facing gay and lesbian couples who could not marry. ...

Like many of those on the other side, Fertel Layne frames the issue of same-sex marriage in the language of right and wrong. But for her it is a more generalized, golden rule kind of right and wrong rather than a religious teaching (her family observed conservative Judaism, but she attends synagogue only on high holidays).

"It is hurtful and wrong" to exclude gays and lesbians from the institution of marriage and its benefits, she says.

She also says it's bad for everyone else.

During her lifetime, she's seen a growing acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships, she says, and that it's a good thing. Children who grow up with an awareness and appreciation that not all families consist of a mother and father are more likely to learn the virtue of tolerance, she says.

And she is skeptical about the argument made by Proposal 2 proponents that children are most likely to prosper in a home with their own mother and father.
Two parents are better than one, she says.

"But I'm not sure it has to be a mom and a dad. If our society didn't treat homosexuality with the disdain that it does, I don't think it would be a problem."

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