Marriage Amendment

To the Editor:
I agree with Adrian Walker (It's time to move on, Boston Globe, Novemebr 6th, 2006: B1) that it is time to move on and to allow gay and lesbian citizens of the Commonwealth to retain their constitutional rights.

However I disagree with his statement that we should accomplish this through "any means necessary." Ends rarely justify means.

He is wrong to state that there is no law to compel the members of the Constitutional Convention to vote on the Marriage Amendment. The Constitution specifies that a ballot initiative which gains sufficient signatures, which the Marriage Amendment did, has to receive a vote from the Constitutional Convention. It also specifies that if the Convention adjourns without voting on the issue, then the Governor must call the Convention back into session until the issue is voted on.

So there is no escape for our legislators: they must vote on the issue. I trust that, despite the pressures they are  under, they will vote against a Constitutional amendment to restrict the rights of any citizen of the Commonwealth.