DID ANYONE IN the GOP leadership actually listen to the speech the president gave when he accepted his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention?

Specifically, I’m wondering about the part when Mr. Bush said, “Many of our most fundamental systems — the tax code, health coverage, pension plans, worker training — were created for the world of yesterday, not tomorrow.” He added, “We will transform these systems so that all citizens are equipped, prepared and thus truly free to make your own choices and pursue your own dreams.”

Has anyone else noticed that even as the president’s words are still hanging in the air like so much convention confetti, the House Republican leadership is moving to have a vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment?

MR. BUSH’S CALL for a fair and modern tax system for all Americans would seem to be in sync with the work of the Human Rights Campaign, as we advocate to extend basic rights and protections to include same-sex couples and their families. But the truth is his party platform explicitly excludes us from their vision, and they are actively working to write discrimination into the Constitution at this very moment.

In fact, the platform not only supports the president’s call for a constitutional amendment outlawing marriage equality, but excludes gay couples from any protection that married straight couples receive. “We further believe that legal recognition and the accompanying benefits afforded couples should be preserved for that unique and special union of one man and one woman which has historically been called marriage,” provides the GOP platform.

Even Vice President Cheney, whose own family has been touched by this issue, has come out against amending the constitution to ban marriage, and has acknowledged that people ought to be free to enter into the relationships that they want.

Mr. Cheney also said that he thinks the issue should be left to individual states to decide, but there’s a problem with that, too.

There are 1,138 federal laws, hundreds of them in the tax code alone, that provide families with security through benefits and protections for married people. Same-sex couples are excluded from every single one of these, even if their state permits them to marry or validates their relationship as a civil union or domestic partnership.

Our nation’s laws must be transformed to reflect our present world, and to permit all citizens to pursue their dreams. The tax code, pension laws, health coverage were created for a very different world — a world that leaves out millions of children who are being raised by same-sex couples; a world that denies basic rights and protections to millions of American couples.

In short, when President Bush so proudly proclaimed “compassion” at the convention, we wish he meant it to extend to all Americans equally.

It’s not compassionate to tax someone on the health benefits that their employer provides for a partner, even if the state recognizes that partner as a legal spouse. It’s not compassionate to tax hard-earned retirement savings, just because the person inheriting them is gay. It’s not compassionate, and it’s not fair.

It is, however, what Mr. Bush and those that support him in Congress stand for.

Very shortly, it is very likely that Congress will vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment. Just a few weeks later, the nation will vote for the next president of the United States.

Right now, we need every fair-minded American in the country to step up to the plate. Call your House member and tell them you oppose the Federal Marriage Amendment and the politics of discrimination and division.

There has never been a better reason — or, to be more precise, 1,138 reasons — for each of us to redouble our efforts in this fight for equality.

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