After reading former NAACP chairman Julian Bond's comments on same-sex marriage ("Julian Bond: Md. must end marriage discrimination," Feb. 18), I have come to the conclusion that many of the people whom I once held in high regard have lost their way. If you ask the smallest child about marriage, they will answer marriage is between a man and a woman. All logic not to mention the Bible prove this. The attempt to link same-sex marriage with civil rights is demeaning to the civil rights movement. Gays and lesbians have rights that blacks in the past were denied. Such as:

Ride on the bus; stay in a hotel; vote; live anywhere; eat in restaurants; try on clothes in department stores; go to the beach; go to parks; go to swimming pools; access libraries; drink at any water fountain; sit anywhere in a bus station, train station or airport; go in the front door of a building; and walk on the sidewalk regardless of who else is coming the other way. The list could go on.

Marriage has been, regardless of what the legislature or Supreme Court says, and always will be, between a man and a woman. You can call an apple an orange, but it's still an apple.

Cliff Tomlin