Even non-religious people likely know the line from Leviticus 18:22: “You shall not lie with a man as with a woman, it is toevah” (often translated as “an abomination,” and used in the Torah to describe also violating the Sabbath). In Matthew 22:39, Jesus mentions a line from Leviticus as one of the two greatest commandments, but it’s not that one. Instead, he quotes Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
That means even Jesus found some passages to be more binding than others. Within the context of Jewish law, rabbis have long held that even some of God’s commandments are at times not as important as the simple human dignity God gave each one of us. It is difficult to imagine a group whose dignity has been more undermined than that of gays and lesbians, told by their own congregations to hide and suppress their sexual orientation, and whose desire to establish a long-term relationship with that “one irreplaceable person” has been dismissed by general society. They have, in effect, been told to walk alone, watching their friends, families and community members walk as pairs or families.
People who identify as gay or lesbian are not able to become heterosexual. While some people of ambivalent sexual orientation are capable of functioning as heterosexuals, those for whom homosexual orientation has become an integral feature of their personal identity are not able to transform into heterosexuals. In 2005, the American Psychological Association issued a statement:
“Human beings cannot choose their sexual orientation. Sexual orientation emerges for most people in early adolescence or late childhood without any prior sexual experience. The experience of sexual attraction and falling in love is one that individuals experience as outside their conscious control. Although we can choose whether to act on our feelings, psychologists do not consider sexual orientation to be a conscious choice.”
If heterosexual marriage and celibacy are not realistic options for gays and lesbians, then we must ask what kind of lifestyle is best for them as individuals and for the community as a whole. Marriage strengthens and stabilizes families and communities, of which same-sex couples are already an integral part. In homosexual relationships, just as in heterosexual ones, marriage announces to family, friends, and the community as a whole that the couple plans to take responsibility for each other and for any children they have. Marriage is no guarantee against adultery or divorce, but it makes both of those less likely – in homosexual relationships as in heterosexual ones. Thus even those who oppose religious forms of consecrating homosexual unions should understand that there is a strong, politically conservative argument for voting against Proposition 8 – namely, that we want gays and lesbians in our society to form stable and faithful bonds to minimize the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and to ensure that society need not carry the burden of caring for them and their children – the same reasons why society has a vested interest in heterosexual marriage.
Unfortunately, as I see it, Proposition 8 not only strips the fundamental right to marriage from those couples; it humiliates them, their families, and the religious congregations of which they are a part. When gay and lesbian couples are finally welcomed to take their rightful places among us, we will then have safeguarded their dignity as individuals, and our dignity as a community.
Expert Verified
