Dear Sir,

The following is a message to the Bermuda Government and the Bermuda people. I don’t think we can continue to be polite about this matter any more.

There is too much at stake. My basic rights in my home country are at stake, and my government is floundering around trying to please everyone in an attempt to keep the majority of the vote with this ridiculous proposed amendment to the Matrimonial Causes Act.

This Preserve Marriage Group is trying to deny a sector of the community basic human rights. Granting same-sex marriage won’t affect heterosexuals.

It affects only those people who cannot get married. And, in case no one noticed, these are real people’s lives everyone is messing with here.

Everyone in the Preserve Marriage group already has the right to get married if they wish. In fact, they can get married, divorced and married again. Why are they so keen to deny that right to others?

I have contacted many MPs and asked them “why I am not granted the same rights as my neighbours?” I have yet to get an answer from any of them.

Will someone from the Government please give the public an honest answer. If you are against equal rights for all of your citizens, just come out and say it.

Don’t tell us you believe in equal rights and then propose this amendment, which reduces the power of our country’s Human Rights Act.

This is history repeating itself. The abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, ending segregation, contraception for women, and now marriage equality.

Those people who fought in favour of these changes are remembered for making the right decisions and making history (Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, etc).

Those who fought against these changes ended up on the wrong side of history.

Wake up, Bermuda Government. Do not end up on the wrong side of history.

A HOPEFUL BERMUDIAN