To the editor:

What a shameful characteristic it is when we grant our “amen” to the principle that injustice gains luster when rendered democratically. The majority was not intended by the Founding Fathers to determine the outcome of all issues. (Ask President Gore.) I cannot determine which feature is more contemptible: the authoritarian impulse to control the most fundamental aspects of others’ self-identity such as marriage status or the devotion to might makes right.

To paraphrase the prime minister of Canada speaking on this same issue, the Constitution’s Bill of Rights was enshrined to ensure that the rights of minorities are not subjected — are never subjected — to the will of the majority. The rights of Americans must always be protected by virtue of their status as citizens for each is an equal citizen, whether in the majority or not, and government must treat each equal citizen equally.

These rights must never be left vulnerable to the impulses of the majority, especially where the minority are so few in number as to be rendered defenseless at the ballot box. Such a result can only be that the minority be subject to indignities that the majority would never apply to themselves. As Lincoln said, “Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”

We Americans speak highly of freedom and equality in theory but the question is whether we are honest enough to embrace them in fact, particularly for the minority.

James Smith,

Lawrence