Are There Transsexuals here who have successfully married?

[smc]

Originally Posted by mr. macaque

let's not forget that america is a democracy, and if more than half of the electorate defines marriage as only between a (genetic) woman and a man, then that's that.

I'll resist the great temptation to discuss whether America is actually a democracy (it all depends on how you define the word). Instead, I want to explain the "tyranny of the majority." This phrase was coined by Alexis de Tocqueville, who in 1835 published a book titled Democracy in America that is one of the finest works of sociology and political science ever. Tocqueville, a Frenchman, traveled throughout what then comprised the United States to study the unique republic in which the French were so interested.

The concept of the "tyranny of the majority" comes from ancient Greece. It is why we have the Equal Protection Clause in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In essence, this concept recognizes that the rights citizens enjoy in the republic should not be subject to the approval of the majority. It is a fundamental tool in protecting the rights of minorities. And it is enforced by not allowing votes on questions of rights.

Unfortunately, it is sometimes subverted. Any time voters are given an opportunity to decide, by majority rule, on whether a given group should have fundamental rights taken away, it raises the specter of the "tyranny of the majority."

Keep in mind that the 14th Amendment was enacted just a few short years after the U.S. Civil War ended, and it was targeted specifically at the "tyranny of the majority" -- white people -- in the South. Many of the ex-Confederate states adopted so-called "Black Codes" after the war with the express purpose of denying rights to former slaves.

In America, we are not supposed to vote on rights. They are guaranteed.

mr. macaque writes that "if more than half of the electorate defines marriage" in a certain way, "then that's that". I wonder whether he would be so enamored of "American democracy" if there was a vote on whether he had the free speech right to post on a website called Trans Ladyboy Forum.