Pro-Life and Pro-GLBT: Maren Ortmeier, Fargo, ND.

To the Editor:

I am a “straight” mother of two children who attend Fargo Catholic Schools, and have been married to my soul mate for 17 years. I am a cradle Catholic. My faith is very important to me and truly helps define who I am and how I live. This letter will be a surprise to many who know me in my faith surroundings, as I am officially “coming out the closet” with this letter.

I can be silent no more about the incompleteness of being pro-life within our faith communities. While I consider myself to be pro-life and seek the beauty in all life (e.g. the unborn, the poor, the mentally and physically disabled, and the refugee) I am confused how we as Christians fail to see the same life worth in our GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) family, friends & neighbors – or at least feel afraid to stand up and voice it.

I have stood in front of the Women’s clinic with my “Choose Life” sign, yet I am told the GLBT should not have the same rights and dignities that are afforded to every other person. The fact that I am attracted to the opposite sex is not, I hope, my most defining characteristic. I hope it is my compassion for my neighbor.

Why do we put so much emphasis on this one trait and allow discrimination to occur on this trait alone? We are to protect every life as sacred, but if a person happens to be gay, we believe we have the prerogative to dismiss them from their employment, throw them out of their apartment or home, or deny them a seat at a restaurant table?

There has been a bill introduced in the North Dakota legislature that will help provide equality for all, and your support of it should not depend on whether you personally believe homosexuality is right or wrong. It is simply about justice and dignity. It prevents discrimination in the workplace, housing, and other life issues. This bill is NOT about gay marriage. It’s about protecting all life and the opportunities afforded to life, regardless of whether that life is straight or gay.

I proudly display my Catholic Charities bumper sticker that says, “If you want peace, work for justice.” I ask you to listen to that voice inside of you that says this kind of discrimination is not living by the Golden Rule, to love our neighbors as ourselves. It is in the struggles and successes of other spiritual greats that we follow, like Dorothy Day, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and St Francis of Assisi, that we challenge the status quo in the name of love.

As a friend said to me the other day, “I just imagine if it were my own child, would I defend him and fight for his rights? You bet I would!” The closest example we have of God’s love for each of us is the unconditional and furiously protective love we have for our children. For parents that are blessed with the opportunity to find God’s beauty in children that fall outside of society’s norm, they ask others to see the beauty in the life that God has given. This lack of defending dignity and love is what is flawed in “the right to abortion” as well as the religious condemnation of someone’s homosexual child. 

While I fully am prepared to have my faith questioned from those who claim to be “devout” Christians/Catholics, I hope it can be an invitation for those who feel as I do to “come out of the closet” themselves and speak up! I lay myself and my reputation on the line in order for healthy discussions to begin. I am only trying to live up to the words on my bumper sticker; therefore I am silent NO MORE!

Maren Ortmeier
Fargo