A 9-year-old girl has penned a letter to Congress demanding nationwide marriage equality.
Buzzfeed reports that Maggie, an elementary school student from Texas, has submitted a strongly worded and reasonable request to the legislative branch of the U.S. government to change laws that discriminate against gays and lesbians.
"Dear Congress, Would you like it if someone wouldn't let you get married to a person you loved of your own gender?" she wrote. "No. So why are you not letting people do that? That needs to change, and it needs to change now."
"Would you rather me send letters all year? Or you listen the first time? Your choice," she concluded. "Sincerly [sic], Maggie."
Maggie's father submitted the letter to the online news outlet because he was impressed by the passion and beyond-her-years moral clarity of his daughter, who is in the third grade.
"What is surprising to us is the forceful language she chose," he said. "She clearly has very strong views about right and wrong, fairness and injustice. And, as she has learned by age 9, sometimes assertive actions are what is needed."
"She also wrote in a paper for school that she wanted to advocate for LGBT rights," he continued. "So, her decision to write a letter concerning LGBT rights is quite pleasing, but not out of the ordinary for her."
In another letter sent by the family, Maggie also expressed an early affinity for feminism, noting, "It's nice knowing the first person to swim across the Atlantic Ocean was a female! And guess what? She did it with a swollen tongue!"
Maggie is reportedly passionate about education as well as activism. For Lent, a holiday in which practitioners traditionally fast or give up a loved activity for 40 days, Maggie vowed to write a weekly letter that advocated for a different cause.
"We were very proud of her decision," her father said.
In an additional school document submitted by her family, Maggie wrote that by the time she turns 100 years old, she hopes to have done "a lot of things helping LGBT rights." As other goals, she wishes to have visited Canada, met Barack Obama, worked as a mechanical engineer, and have eaten 100 cupcakes by that time.
