Dannemeyer’s Stand Against Homosexuality

At last I have been provided with a definition of “special privileges” for gays and lesbians from Rep. Bill Dannemeyer (Letters, April 1). According to Dannemeyer, gays may not enjoy the special privileges of legally recognized marriages, adopting children, unlimited military service or filing a joint tax return. I never realized that domestic relations, child-rearing or military status had reached the level of special status available only to certain citizens.

A right to be free of governmental interference in matters of marriage or domestic partnership can be defended not only in the name of individual choice but also in the name of intrinsic value or social importance of the practice it protects.

Whether such a right is fundamental depends not on historical roots, but on its importance for the fulfillment of basic human needs. Homosexual intimacy can be classed alongside other intimate activities as part of the sphere of autonomy necessary for the flourishing of human personality.

Because people need to be able to relate to one another intimately and sexually, and because not everyone finds fulfillment in the same rigid categories of gender and sex, the law ought to be as tolerant as possible in this area, at least where consenting adults are involved and no one is suffering any harm.

Government may not enforce a particular moral view, however widely held, for no individual should be compelled to surrender the freedom to make that decision for himself simply because his value preferences are not shared by the majority.

As with religion and freedom of speech, so with privacy, the ideal of neutrality is that government must be neutral among conceptions of the good life in order to respect the capacity of persons to choose their values and relationships for themselves.

The right of privacy protects such liberties as the autonomous control over the development and expression of one’s intellect, interests, tastes and personality, as well as freedom of choice in the basic decisions of one’s life respecting marriage, divorce, procreation, contraception and the education and upbringing of children.

JOHN J. DURAN

Santa Ana

John Duran is chairman of LIFE (Lobby for Individual Freedom and Equality), a gay/lesbian advocacy group in Sacramento.