— I’m amazed how an interview in a religious publication can stir anger and hate from its unintended readers. Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chik-fil-A, answered a few simple questions posed by a reporter in an interview for the Baptist Press.

Alarmist liberal journalists read too much into what he said, alerted activists in the GLBT community and the expected emoting began with calls of “boycott.”

The issue of gay marriage has been kept alive this year, beginning with the 9th Circuit’s overturn of California’s Proposition 8 to President Obama’s campaigning that it should be a right. The definition of marriage and the real purpose of marriage has been lost in this debate. Marriage is not a right. If it requires a license, it’s not a right. It’s a permission granted from the state. As such, there are qualifiers in order to obtain this license to marry.

In Oklahoma, neither intended marital partner can be closely related, be under legal age or be of the same gender. And they can’t be animals or inanimate objects.

The real purpose of marriage is to ease the transfer of wealth from one generation to the next. That’s the unvarnished, unromantic legalistic purpose of marriage.

That’s why children born out of wedlock are considered “illegitimate,” legally unqualified to inherit property.

Those marital qualifiers were set up to enable the birth of offspring for inheritance purposes as well as ensure they could be physically and mentally fit to enjoy its use. Children are the natural expectation of any marital union. It’s disheartening for most couples when they can’t have any. Nevertheless, marital law exists for the ultimate transfer of accumulated wealth to the next generation. Shocker: Homosexual couples don’t reproduce.

Liberals once decried matrimony as legalized rape. Now, they want homosexuals to have marital “rights.” It’s all a smarmy ruse.

I’m no homophobe, but I tire of their obvious manipulative ploy to play the victim. I don’t deny that there are many loving homosexual couples, but it appears that gay marriages are really about having all the fun and games and no business.

DANNY J. INNIS

Muskogee