Proposed change is too extreme

To the editor:

I believe that amending the U.S. Constitution is an extreme act. I have read that the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment would deny the right to marry to gay and lesbian couples and also obliterate the family rights that many same-sex couples -- and unmarried heterosexual couples -- and their families now have. Revising the Constitution to incorporate discrimination against anyone in America is wrong and should be rejected.

I also be-lieve that the amendment is un-necessary and wrong. Even though the country has periodically struggled with the question of marriage -- the last law prohibiting people of different races from marrying was overturned only 35 years ago -- we have never taken the step of amending the Constitution to define marriage. Now is not the time to begin to use the Constitution as a tool for discrimination. Congress certainly has more important issues to consider.

The Federal Marriage Amendment rejects American traditions of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I have read that it would reverse the constitutional tradition of protecting individual freedoms. None of our constitutional amendments restrict individual freedoms. In fact, the amendments to the Constitution have been the source of most of the Constitution's protections for individual liberty rights. I understand that the proposed amendment, by contrast, would deny all protection for the most personal decisions made by millions of people in committed long-term relationships.

ANTHONY HAMPTON

Dexter, Mo.