Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Re “To Know Us Is to Let Us Love,” by Frank Bruni (column, June 26):

Despite having long supported the right of gays to marry, I feel less than euphoric at the action taken by the New York Legislature on Friday. Same-sex marriage should not be left to a change in public perception or to the whim of the electorate or its elected representatives.

The very bedrock of our country is that neither the government nor the will of the majority can deprive a minority of basic human rights.

Forty-four states still don’t permit gays to marry, which is why I hope that the courts ultimately decree in the lawsuit challenging Proposition 8 in California that neither government nor the ballot box can deprive gays of a right to which all people should be entitled.

SAMUEL GURKA
Bronx, June 26, 2011

Note from KBJ: The people should not have a say in this! Let them be dictated to by their betters! Thank God most states, including mine, don't allow homosexuals to marry one another.