Dear Editor: I've heard the gay rights movement of today compared to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Not true; blacks cannot change to white.

The gay rights movement is more similar to the left-handed rights movement, which was fought centuries ago. The left-handed minority can force themselves to use only the other hand. We all can do what doesn't come naturally. But if we try, we do it awkwardly, and it feels uncomfortable. Still something missing from the comparison? What is the definition of the word "sinister"? Evil, bad, scary. Yes, all of these, but the oldest definition of sinister is "left-handed."

Ancient societies consistently labeled those who were different from the rest as evil. Left-handed? Evil. Homosexual? Evil. Birth defect? Evil. It is a gut reaction to be scared of what is different. Gut reactions sometimes make good people do bad things.

The civilized world has moved beyond this primitive thinking. Norway granted equal rights to same-sex couples in 1993. "Civil unions" now give Norwegian gay and lesbian couples legal rights equal to marriage.

Many countries have since followed Norway by granting same-sex civil unions: Germany, France, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Hungary, Croatia and the Czech Republic.

These countries offer equal rights. We don't. That's embarrassing. The Wisconsin marriage amendment contains a ban on civil unions. Why? Our constitution says "equal rights," which could someday be read as "equal rights for gays too." Well, isn't that exactly how it should be read?

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