It’s easy to be afraid of the unknown. Most of us were at some point. As children, we worried about what might lurk under our bed.

Fear can be your brain’s warning to proceed with caution. Fears unexplored, however, can leave us cowering under the covers when in fact it was only a shadow that spooked us.

As the marriage equality campaign proceeds, we’re going to hear a lot of fear expressed. The 2008 campaign was lost because of the success of the opposition instilling fear that children would be indoctrinated or recruited into homosexuality; they would be taught “Homosexuality 101” in kindergarten.

After the campaign, in the documentary “Question One,” the opponent’s campaign manager admitted that assertion was not true.

I urge voters to do some homework. Look up the children’s books opponents of marriage equality claim teach homosexuality: “The Lopez Family,” “A Trip to the Dentist,” “Arwen & Her Daddies,” “King and King” and “Molly’s Family.”

These books help children understand that many different types of families offer the same love, safety and care that hopefully they experience in their own homes. Love, not gender, makes a family.

I realize some religions oppose marriage equality, saying it’s an illness, in direct contradiction to results of professional, peer-reviewed studies, but I ask everyone to think about it. Do we want religion to be the basis of our laws in this land of the free? If so, whose religion? Mine? I’d like that. How about Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism?

In the United States, we’ve made it a point to not promote one religion over another; not put one interpretation of religious beliefs into our legal decisions. Laws are stronger, fairer and more consistent when based on reasonable, documented standards.

Employ logic. Question “facts.” Ask for sources. Do your homework.

Maggie Ricker

Chelsea

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