As citizens of Austin committed to working together to preserve our culture of respect and dignity for all, we urge the Austin City Council to support the marriage equality resolution backed by Equality Texas, the Human Rights Campaign, the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and allgo, and sponsored by Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole, Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Council Member Laura Morrison.
Dear Honorable Mayor Leffingwell and members of the Austin City Council,
As citizens of Austin committed to working together to preserve our culture of respect and dignity for all, we urge the Austin City Council to support the marriage equality resolution backed by Equality Texas, the Human Rights Campaign, the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and allgo, and sponsored by Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole, Mayor Lee Leffingwell and Council Member Laura Morrison.
We are proud to live in a city that celebrates the diversity of all its residents and recognizes, through a series of nondiscrimination ordinances in the areas of housing, public accommodation and employment, the inalienable rights of each individual to obtain housing, to obtain goods and services in a public accommodation, and to work to earn wages and obtain a share of the wealth of this City through gainful employment, without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, disability, student status, marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or age.
We are proud the City recognizes that the denial of such rights through considerations based on race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, disability, student status, marital status, familial status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or age is detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the inhabitants of the City and constitutes an unjust denial or deprivation of such inalienable rights which is within the power and the proper responsibility of government to prevent.
Marriage provides legal and economic protections including access to health care, recognition of parental and custodial responsibilities, property rights, and other protections which are vital to the safety and security of every family, and is a powerful and important affirmation of love and commitment and a source of social support and recognition.
As the Supreme Court said in the 1967 landmark case Loving v. Virginia, "Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival."
Thank you for your leadership in support of the freedom to marry and for sending the message nationwide that the City of Austin values equality.
