In 1967, a Supreme Court decision with 72 percent public opposition ended laws against interracial marriage. In 1991, 24 years later, for the first time, a slight majority of Americans approved of interracial marriage.

Most of my family are Catholic. My parents were married 50 years ago at Holy Family Church. My uncle was not allowed to attend his sister's wedding because she married a Baptist.

Looking back, we can wonder how to make sense of these events, in a country founded on principles of religious and political freedom.

If gays or lesbians want to marry, to have the legal rights and responsibilities spelled out in law that come with civil marriage, why should they be denied that opportunity because some religions do not approve of it? Civil marriage is not a religious institution; it is a legal contract that protects property rights, inheritance and regulates financial responsibilities.

Question 1 supporters reference the Bible as a reason to repeal the law, even though religious marriage is protected and unaffected.

People should remember that this country was founded by people, like my ancestors, who arrived here in the 1600s, fleeing religious persecution. As the preamble to the Declaration of Independence says so eloquently: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Please join me in voting "no" on Question 1.

Sen. Deb Simpson, Auburn