Passivity No Excuse for Bigotry

To the editors:

Adam J. Levitin's dissent from the editorial supporting gay rights (Staff Editorial, Apr. 7) said, "...to state that the majority of Americans, who are conflicted about their personal views on homosexuality and uncomfortable with queer culture, are complicit in active persecution is inappropriate." Levitin's argument implies that it would be just as accurate to say that since the majority of Americans are conflicted about their personal views of Judaism and feel uncomfortable with Jewish culture (with the exception of bagels), they are not complicit in anti-Semitism. If it were not for protections against public and private religious persecution, Jews would still be an endangered minority in this country, excluded from institutions of power and higher learning and vulnerable to anti-Semitic attack.

I, as a Jew, would consider anyone who was not openly against anti-Semitism to be complicit in the preservation of the persecution. This should also be the case for gay rights: it is not a matter of "comfort" but of mutual respect and protection. If we allow the "abnormal" to be marginalized and criminalized, then we are all in danger of being defined out of the mainstream. The majority has a great deal of authority in this country, for good reasons, but it is implicit in our Constitution that the authority of the majority cannot cancel out the right of the individual to their private consciences and values.

Gay rights is a matter of justice, a clear test of whether we will allow "distaste" to overwhelm "right" and "reasonable." I dread the implications of failure. JONATHAN F. DRESNER, GSAS   April 7, 1998