<p>The letter below written by a high school student from Iowa was received by Dignity in December. It is messages like these that encourage us to press on in the fight to affirm that all of God&rsquo;s children are valuable and worthy of respect and dignity and we wanted to share it with our members.</p> <!--break--> <blockquote> <p>Dear DignityUSA</p> <p>I am a high school senior living in Iowa. As a part of my semester project for my Government class I wrote a paper in support of gay marriage rights. When searching for an influential person to write to I came across DignityUSA&rsquo;s website. As an individual who was raised in the Catholic Church I was pleasantly surprised to see what Dignity has to offer.</p> <p>The message that Dignity gives off is exactly how I feel regarding homosexuality. My family is one of the many groups of Catholics that see homosexuality as nothing but a sin and therefore should not be granted the right of marriage or place within the Christian community. I on the other hand have a completely different view. Sexual orientation should have no effect on whether or not [people] should be allowed to be married or call themselves Christians. If the Bible itself says to love everyone how are God&rsquo;s people following his word by discriminating against a certain type of people?</p> <p>If more churches were to take up the beliefs of Dignity it would be a step in the right direction in regards to having more churches open to marrying homosexuals. The Catholic Church is a generally homophobic establishment but thanks to Dignity it can be shown to the world that not all Christians are against gay rights.</p> <p>I would simply like to thank DignityUSA for standing up for the right of homosexuals. This sets a huge example for other Catholic churches to take up a similar belief. Welcoming homosexuality into the church paves the way for welcoming more gay unions within churches. It is groups like Dignity that make a difference.</p> </blockquote> <p><br /> &nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>