Special to Gay Marriage Watch From Dr. Kate O’Hanlan and Marriage Equality USA
ALL (not some, all) of America’s established experts on family, mental health and child health agree that America would benefit if same-sex couples could have civil marriage to protect their families. Here is why:
The National Library of Medicine scientific research publications all confirm that sexual orientation is natural, biologically induced in the first trimester of pregnancy, morally neutral, immutable, neither contagious nor learned, bearing no relation to an individual’s ability to form deep and lasting relationships, to parent children, to work, or to contribute to society.
Sexual orientation and gender identity are like handedness: biological, unchangeable, innocent. We used to think left-handed was evil, as in “sinister” which comes from Latin for “left”, force lefties to use their right hand, even though they never really changed handedness.
Research reveals variable hormonal levels in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy permanently affect child’s neural circuitry for sexual orientation and gender identity to express on a spectrum between straight and gay, same or opposite gender. A little extra testosterone secreted from the adrenals during early pregnancy affects the baby girls’ brains causing nearly half to be lesbian, a tenth to be transgender. Also, a girl twin baby simply sharing the womb with a boy co-twin, in which some of his testosterone from his amniotic fluid gets into her blood, causes about one fifth of girl co-twins to be lesbian. These girls also have the bone structure and physical coordination of boys, so they are good in sports, and thus the stereotype.
The opposite is also true: a bit less testosterone than usual in a boy’s blood during early pregnancy can make him “light in the loafers” or transgender. If a boy’s mother has delivered many older brothers before him, which caused her to make blocking antibody to their male proteins, then the youngest brother receives lower levels of testosterone in his blood, resulting in about one fifth of boys with many older brothers being gay. These boys have the physiology and verbal skills and excel in language and visual arts, slightly more like girls, and thus the stereotype.
Most homosexuals and most heterosexuals will say that they had no choice to be how they are because they were born on the far ends of the spectrum. They firmly claim they were “born that way.” But, some straight and gay folks feel it WAS and IS definitely a choice for them because they were born closer to the middle of the biological spectrum between straight and gay: they are bisexual. Their orientations don’t change from straight to gay; they simply have brain wiring that attracts them to both. All orientation is hard-wired prenatally and none can change it. It is all biological and innocent, and not contagious or changeable.
Everybody has an opinion about same-sex marriage, but what does the scientific research reveal about the health and welfare of children and families in same-sex marriages?????
Rather than make gay rights a popularity contest, let’s ask America’s best experts on family, mental health and children what the research shows is best for all American families. From the American Psychological Association: homosexuality is a normal sexual orientation; homosexual relationships are normal relationships.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists, National Association of Social Workers, Child Welfare League of America, North American Council on Adoptable Children have endorsed civil marriage/adoption for same-sex couples because marriage strengthens mental, physical health and longevity of couples, and having two parents (of any gender) provides greater health, legal/financial security for children. Research confirms that children develop perfectly normally. Even the American Academy of Anthropology has issued a policy statement that says access to civil marriage by same-sex couples will not harm our social order. Visit the websites of these non-partisan, national professional and certifying associations for their policy statements.
If we don’t listen to professional experts on national family health and welfare, then we are simply voting our religious beliefs or personal bias into state and federal laws, and harming the families of gay and lesbian couples, especially those with children.
About Dr. O’Hanlan: Dr. O’Hanlan is a gynecologic cancer surgeon. Since meeting her wife, Léonie Walker, almost 28 years ago, Dr. O’Hanlan has been working on equal rights for gays and lesbians. In 1989, she won partner insurance benefits at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Continuing her equality efforts at Stanford University, she led the initiative to create an equal employment benefit package there in 1991, making Stanford the first university to grant a precisely equal employment package to all employees. She founded the Lesbian Health Fund in 1992, which has fostered 47 articles, with 31 grants from over $500,000. She wrote the American Medical Women’s Association policy endorsing same-gender civil marriage in 1994. She then authored Homophobia as a Health Hazard: Report of the GLMA, Lesbian Health: Perspectives for Treating Obstetrician/Gynecologists, the first chapter on lesbian health in Copeland’s Gynecology Textbook, and published the first evidence of HPV transmission by lesbians by 2000. She was co-principal investigator of the first NIH grant studying lesbians with breast cancer. She also published the first article about female to male transsexuals undergoing hysterectomy in 2007.
As former president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, Dr. O’Hanlan has spoken on LGBTIQ health issues at the National Institutes for Health, the President’s Cancer Panel, the Office of Research on Women’s Health, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). She authored the District IX, California, ACOG endorsement of marriage equality, and published a review of policies about civil marriage equality, requesting the national ACOG to review this subject. She is a Fellow of the progressive Rockway Institute, and became a marriage officiant during the brief time when California permitted equal access to civil marriage in 2008.
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