First and foremost, I must state that I am not prejudiced against heterosexuals by any means. I actually have friends that are straight. However, in the heat of controversy, a few neglect the basis in which marriage is truly about.

In your letter Liz McCarthy ("Marriage a right reserved for heterosexual couples"), you did not even allude to love. Love is something that cannot be defined by Merriam-Webster's online dictionary. Love knows no boundaries.

And indeed we are trying to change the "institutional definition of marriage," but not because we would rather be with a person of the same sex; it is because, for some of us, it is the only reality.

Does it genuinely offend you that we want equal rights? In your conclusion you state that we should be able to create some sort of union that grants us "all of the same benefits as married couples," but it cannot be called marriage.

Well here's a newsflash: Separate is not equal.

Michael DiGregorio

sophomore-hotel, restaurant and institutional management