Dear Governor Kaine, I heartily supported you in your run for Governor of our state. I donated to your campaign, asked my significant other to do the same, and made phone calls at the local democratic party office on your behalf. I support your notions of balanced and well-planned growth, pre-K schooling for children, and share your fundamental opposition to the death penalty with a pragmatic acknowledgement that it is the law of the land, and something I must live with but work to change. I was distressed to hear news that you plan to sign the amendment working through the legislature which would prohibit marriage and "similar arrangements" in Virginia for same-sex couples. I met you at an event hosted by Equality Virginia in Alexandria, and organization that raised money for you and helped organize phone banking for you (for which I also volunteered). At that event, during a discussion of HB 751, you spoke eloquently about the fundamental fair-mindedness of Virginians, and the likelihood that it would be repealed in the not-too-distant future. I was impressed by your sincerity, by our brief one-on-one exchange about education in Virginia (I am a school administrator), and went forward to ask my friends who said things like, "oh he is another republican-lite," or "he'll never win in Virginia," or "he will leave us twisting in the wind like Clinton," to change their minds, turn out and vote, and even donate to you. Many did. Please do not sign the marriage amendment. Even if the legislature overrides a veto from you, what does it matter? Your veto would put forward the message that this enshrines discrimination in a most unpleasant manner, not consistent with a forward-moving democracy. It would give meaning to your words when you say that you don't approve of the scope of the amendment. Send it back to the legislature with your disapproval. If they override your veto, so be it. At least you will have taken a stand. Governor Kaine, please don't let us down. So many of us worked so hard to see your elected. So many of us carried hope forward that Virginia would be saved from the worst excesses of the far right for four more years under your leadership. Be a leader. Veto this mean-spirited, nasty amendment.