Letter: Majority can't base happiness ..

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

It is one thing to cast an impersonal vote to deprive an entire class of one's fellow citizens of its inalienable right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness. It would be quite another matter to remain callously unmoved by the televised images of that same minority's release of pent-up joy at being granted those rights through legal redress, however temporary or tenuous at this point.

For the state, at the insistence of the majority, to pursue the continued ban on same-sex marriage is not only foolhardy, based as it is on indefensible tradition, but unconscionable in its disregard for equal protection under the law.

The majority cannot hope to build either happiness or security on the oppression and unhappiness of the minority.

Rodney Johnson

Farmington

Letter: Majority can't base happiness on discrimination