A letter to Governor Snyder:

As a woman who self-identifies as queer, but is in a relationship with a man, I am lucky.

As a woman who is generally identified as straight, I am lucky.

As a citizen who enjoys full voting rights, full access to services that our state provides, and who deeply and fully loves our beautiful and great state of Michigan, I am lucky.

I am lucky because no one questions my orientation. I am lucky because no one would question my right to marry the man that I love. I am lucky because I live in the most beautiful place on the planet. I am lucky because I see, beyond the unemployment and the desperation, the richness that our state has to offer. I am lucky because I've had the opportunity to travel; to live all over our Lower Peninsula; and to never, ever be questioned about anything. I am lucky because when I walk down the street holding hands with my partner, no one bats an eyelash. I am lucky.

The fact that I'm in love with a man doesn't make me right: it makes me lucky.

I was recently offered health benefits at my job. I would love to take them. They're expensive, and they'd stretch our budget. I would love to be able to offer benefits to my partner. We may choose to marry or we may not, but that does not take away from our commitment to one another. 

Many of my friends are in loving, long-term partnerships--marriages--with a person of their same gender. That doesn't take away from their commitments. Michigan does not recognize same-sex marriages, and frankly, that is wrong. That takes a bit of humanity from people that I love, and it denigrates their relationships. They're effectively considered second-class citizens: they cannot add their partners (husbands and wives) to their insurance policies because their marriages are not allowed and because the current House and Senate bills exclude domestic partnerships from all public benefits.

Nearly fifty years ago, anti-miscegenation laws were struck down by the Supreme Court. Fifty years from now, I want to look back at this era and shake my head and wonder what people were thinking, in the same way we look at the laws in 1966 banning interracial marriage. I want to remember my state as one who stood up, head high, and said, "This is the right thing to do." I want to witness my friends' marriages and have those marriages afforded the same rights and privileges that my own would. I want to be proud of Michigan.

Right now, that doesn't seem likely.

A veto on the recently passed House and Senate bills banning benefits from unrelated adults would go a long way toward restoring my faith in our wonderful, beautiful state.