Dear Sir,

The following is a letter written to David Burt, the Premier, and copied to you.

I was both saddened and shocked to read in this morning’s Royal Gazette (December 14, 2018) that a further appeal on the matter of same-sex marriage is planned.

The only grounds for seeking to deny a fundamental human right to gays are religious. I believe that Bermuda is meant to not be a theocracy.

Indeed, not all religions, religious people or clerics hold with denying rights to persons of diverse sexual preferences — only some, who happen to be particularly outspoken, support denying rights to persons based on a very private and personal attribute.

The Bible has in it intolerant words about homosexuality … but also condemns eating lobster and sanctions slavery. As a society, we have moved beyond these unreasonable and, in the case of slavery, intolerable views. Surely placing restrictions on gays that we do not place on rapists or murderers or paedophiles is evidence of pure bigotry.

We live in challenging enough times. Bermuda is beset with intractable problems — of which gay marriage is not one — and our financial resources are strained to a dangerous point.

I object vehemently to once again wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the public purse on a vicious, sectarian persecution of our already beleaguered and utterly innocent fellow citizens.

This rabid pursuit of an unworthy goal shames us internationally and in no way serves us locally.

CRISTINA VALDES-DAPENA

Warwick