To the editor:

Several years ago, my Jewish boyfriend and I were traveling by train in Germany, sharing a car with a young German physician, discussing the Holocaust. The physician denounced his parents for their passivity. He was ashamed they did not speak out against Hitler’s agenda which initially marked and segregated (and later murdered) Jews, homosexuals and other minorities.

I was young, struck by his shame, but also by his insistence that his generation would never condone such atrocities. From that moment I have often wondered if I would recognize the seeds of such injustices, and if I would speak out against them. That conversation haunts me now.

Unless the silent among us speak out, Kansas will soon amend our constitution solely to discriminate against our lesbian and gay citizens. They will be marked in the document we hold dearest for liberty, simply because they share a single minority quality, a sexual attraction toward the same sex. Most believe homosexuality is a natural trait, “God given,” sort of like being born Jewish or African American.

I know all the justifications for the proposed amendment. I just don’t know why so many say it is the public’s right to vote on such a sorry question. Too many legislators who know better have not passed my German doctor’s test of standing up against wrong-headed public pressure: “Let the public vote,” they say. Shame on them and shame on Kansas if we commit such an atrocity against our fellow citizens and upon our own standards of humanity and justice.

Margaret Farley,

Lawrence