Youth Letter to Michele Bachman

Youth Letter to Michele Bachman

Nicholas Adelman, 16, of Salt Lake City, writes open letter to Bachmann challenging her stand on equality.

Utah youth challenges Michele Bachman on her stance on equality

During a recent campaign appearance in Iowa, Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said gay people have the right to get married — to a person of the opposite sex. Bachmann was responding to a question from Jane Schmidt, 16, who asked the candidate about support of the LGBT community and marriage rights. "They can get married," Bachmann said. "But they abide by the same law as everyone else. They can marry a man if they're a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they're a man."

Nicholas Adelman, 16, of Salt Lake City, wrote this open letter to Bachmann challenging her stand.

Dear Mrs. Bachmann,

At the molecular level, one could say that you and I are very similar. Any general biology class will dictate that all animals are composed of cells sharing the same structure. These minute fragments of my body specialize to form organs, tissue, and even blood. This same blood that courses through our veins eventually passes through the heart, the organ that so graciously provides life to all animals. After the heart pumps blood to the lungs, where it becomes saturated with oxygen, the blood makes its way to other parts of the body including the brain. The marvelous brain is capable of such a great range of thought and emotion.

The only emotion that truly matters in our predicament, Mrs. Bachmann, is love. I love you as a brave woman and fellow human being. Will you love me back? Before you make this decision, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nicholas Adelman. I am a 16-year-old teenager living in the beautiful city of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Throughout the years, I have always been an exemplary student; in fact, I have not received a letter grade lower than an A since fifth grade! At school I take a multitude of honors classes as well as advanced art classes. My artwork has received awards and has even been published in a print magazine. On top of all of this, I have excellent, loving relationships with my family and friends.

Now, I can try to elevate myself onto a higher pedestal by feeding myself all of my positive qualities, but the fact still exists: I am not equal to you according to federal and even state law. You possess certain rights and privileges that would allow me to lead a fulfilled life. I simply cannot fathom myself ever feeling completely happy in life knowing that I cannot marry the man that I love. Despite all of this, I still love you as a sister. At the age of 11 it seems only natural that a boy would begin seeing girls in a new, different light. I began to notice that boys in my class had "girlfriends." From having seen such a vast amount of heterosexuality in my lifetime, I reckoned that it was time to have a girlfriend too. Back in the day I would convince myself that girls such as Maddie and Meleesa were the girls that I needed to make myself fit in and be happy. They were and still are beautiful girls, but no level of mutual attraction ever existed between those girls and myself. I struggled to understand why I had no real interest in pursuing relationships with girls, all the while I would catch myself stealing glances at other boys.

For a few years I unsuccessfully tried to convince myself that this was just a phase of my ongoing puberty, but I tried out the girlfriend idea quite a few times and always felt disconnected from girls in any physical and romantic respect. You must understand that when I saw Thomas's face, my heart would flutter and I had to force myself to bottle in this spontaneous feeling. Dylan's smile was so charming, and his eyes were the hue similar to that of the clearest sea. Do you remember these days as a teenage girl? Did you have a Connor or Sam that made you look forward to your math class every day?

I cannot comprehend the notion that this feeling I had and still have for other boys is learned; it is too immediate and severe to be something I would ever pick up from any propaganda or infomercial. Once I felt this feeling for a few boys at my school, I was certain of who I was and still continue to be. No gale force wind, electric shock therapy, nor prayer can change the way I feel when I see the face of any boy I have ever fancied, no matter how short the infatuation with said boy lasted. This brings me to the final point of my loving letter to you: what about the moral implications of my sexual orientation? Mrs. Bachmann, I deeply respect any religious choices you have made and I do not wish to question them. After all, this is the land of the free. As you are a woman serving her country, would it be correct to say that you fight for the best interests of the American public as a whole?

As I said before, I respect your religious beliefs, but I am kindly asking you to consider that people practice different faiths than your own. America prides itself in being a melting pot of diversity; it would only seem right to accommodate every single American citizen under the law in a fair manner. I am not of any particular faith, so I do not believe that it is fair for Christian-Centric laws to apply to me.

Does this logic make sense? As a politician, I hold you to putting your personal biases aside and deciding what will benefit the masses. Denying happiness and equal treatment to countless American citizens is no way to benefit the masses; it provides an unfair privilege to those who can be married without questioning and consequence.

The only outcome of same sex marriage in America is that same sex couples will become happily wed. No lifestyle will be forced upon children. No glamorization of sex will come from the homosexual community. One cannot blame poor choices of one person or a small group on something so trivial as sexual orientation. Heterosexual men are just a likely to commit crime as homosexual men, and the same applies to women. It is time that you realize that I am a good person who deserves equality in love just as much as you do. Mrs. Bachmann, I only ask you to try and understand where I am coming from. Set aside any prejudice or misconceptions you may have regarding the queer community and open your eyes to love. Love exists in heterosexual couples as well as homosexual couples. This is not some phony knockoff of love, but true love. Help me help you and spread the word of love.

Love, Nicholas Adelman