Dear Governor Kaine and Staff of the Human Resources Department:

I am very supportive of this measure, not because my same-sex partner needs health benefits - he has MUCH better benefits through his company (who being one of the largest banks in the world actually values all of their employees and the employee's familys equally) than I have as a state employee.  I am lucky that if I leave my state employment, I can receive coverage.  He is not so fortunate if he were to lose his position.

My much greater concern is the support for my parents working in southwest Virginia and what will happen if one of them passes.  As the eldest son, I would most assuredly be at their side to support and care, emotionally and financially.  I have seen my mother work in a very difficult job, putting up with things and taking what she could get just to sometimes make enough that week to pay the healthcare insurance for her and my father when the hours were cut.  Knowing that I could support one of them in my home by providing ACCESS to affordable healthcare.  Not PAYMENT from the state coffers, but ACCESS.

I'm sorry that so many of the citizens responding to this initiative are focused on their own views of morality and beliefs in their own superiority instead of reaching out with love and compassion to their fellow Virginians.  These changes are coming to Virginia and to the United States and someday the world.  It's not so long ago that people of different races were overtly discriminated against. Sometimes we just do things that are right, even if they don't match our personal needs or beliefs.  This is such a time.

Thank you for your efforts.