The freedom to marry is a basic human right. The decision to marry is a deeply personal choice.

Marriage is about love commitment and mutual concern. Legal marriage brings with it over 1,400 legal rights--over 1,100 federal protections and several hundred state rights.

Marriage provides tangible and intangible protections. These cannot be approximated through the drafting of legal documents such as wills nor can they be obtained through inferior legal regimes such as domestic partnerships or civil unions.

Ending the exclusion of same-sex couples and their families from marriage will help families and harm no one. At issue is civil marriage, not religious marriage. Faith traditions will always have the right to decide at what weddings to officiate and what marriages to recognize.

Couples who would freely choose to accept the responsibilities of marriage should not be denied the right because the partners are of the same sex.

Denying same-sex couples the freedom to marry stigmatizes all members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as second-class citizens. The harm extends far beyond couples but includes their children, their extended families and gay youth as well.

Denying same-sex couples the freedom to marry is particularly harmful to older couples and surviving partners who are denied the basic protections legally married couples take for granted every day from social security survivor's benefits to the right to share a room in a nursing home.

I support the freedom to marry because we all have a stake in assuring that every American is treated equally under the law, and that American values of fairness and freedom, choice and commitment, and the pursuit of happiness are respected and upheld.

I stand ready to support the freedom to marry by talking to friends and family about the importance of marriage equality and the obstacles gay and lesbian families face everyday because they lack the freedom to marry.

In knowing that a copy of this petition will be sent to elected leaders, I add my voice to the hundreds of thousands across the country who are willing to lobby our legislators in support of ending the exclusion of same-sex couples and their families from marriage.