Defining Marriage is Problematic

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Registered: 04-16-2003
Defining Marriage is Problematic
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Sat, 02-07-2004 - 10:49am
Laws Can't Define 'Man' or 'Woman,' So How Can They Ban Gay Marriage?

Commentary, William O. Beeman,

Pacific News Service, Feb 05, 2004

Editor's Note: Legislators' attempts to codify marriage as "between a man and a woman" won't work, writes PNS contributor William O. Beeman. Like it or not, there is no single, clear biological, psychological or cultural definition of "male" and "female." Already, courts are faltering on the ambiguity of gender.

The Massachusetts Supreme Court advisory, stating that nothing short of marriage for same-sex couples would satisfy the state constitution, has sent legislators throughout the nation as well as President Bush scrambling to define marriage as between "one man and one woman."

These legislative attempts are doomed, because there is no clear, scientific and strict definition of "man" and "woman." There are millions of people with ambiguous gender -- many of them already married -- who render these absolute categories invalid.

There are at least three ways one might try to codify gender under law -- biologically, psychologically and culturally. On close inspection, all of them fail.

Biologically, one must choose either secondary sexual characteristics -- things like facial hair for men or breast development for women -- or genetic testing as defining markers of gender. Neither method is clear-cut. Some women show male secondary characteristics, and vice versa. Before puberty, things are not necessarily any clearer. A significant proportion of all babies have ambiguous gender development. It has been longstanding -- and now, increasingly, controversial -- medical practice to surgically "reassign" such babies shortly after birth so that they will have only one set of sexual organs.

Sometimes doctors guess wrong, and children are "reassigned" and raised as males, when they are genetically female, and vice versa.

In one condition, androgen insensitivity syndrome, genetic males are born with a genetic immunity to androgens, the hormones that produce male sexual characteristics. Though they are genetic males, these children typically grow up looking like females, although they have no internal female organs.

Although figures are imprecise, experts in intersexuality, such as Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling of Brown University, estimate that persons born with some degree of ambiguous gender constitute approximately 1 percent of the population. This means that there are 2 million Americans who may be biologically ambiguous.

Psychologically, another dilemma for those who seek to codify gender is the condition known as gender dysphoria, in which a person feels that their true gender is the opposite of that in which they were born. These individuals are often referred to as "transgendered." Some experts estimate as many as 1.2 million Americans are transgendered. Gender dysphoria is a matter of personal identity and has nothing to do with sexual orientation. A male-to-female transgendered person may be attracted to women or to men.

Finally, human societies around the world recognize individuals who are culturally female or culturally male no matter what their physical gender. The "berdache" is an umbrella term used by Europeans to designate a man who is culturally classified as a woman, and who may be a "wife" to another man. The practice is perhaps best known among the Zuñi Indians of Arizona, but is widely seen in other tribal groups as well. Outside of North America, the hijra of India, a cultural "third gender," is important in ceremonial life. Hijra are classified as "neither man nor woman," but they may marry males. These examples of cultural gender ambiguity are only two among dozens throughout the world.

If the United States tries to enact a national law defining gender conditions for marriage, it is only a matter of time before the law falters on one of these rocks of ambiguity. There are undoubtedly existing marriages where the wife is a genetic male or the husband is a genetic female. In a medical examination, if it is determined that this genetic fact is discovered, is the marriage then voided? When post-operative transgendered persons wed, whom will they be allowed to marry -- persons with the opposite set of chromosomes, or people with the opposite set of genitalia?

There has already been one Texas decision where two "women" were allowed to marry, because one of them had originally been a male. We can expect far more stories like this should this legislative circus proceed.

PNS contributor William O. Beeman (William_beeman@brown.edu) teaches anthropology at Brown University.

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=d3362852002e314524ffb9ac8eac3c91

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 02-20-2004 - 10:43pm

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-21-2004
Sat, 02-21-2004 - 1:32am
"I know for a fact that each and every homosexual suffers from an emotional problem"

It seems to me that you have no idea how gays and lesbians live. Judgement on peoples lives the way you seem to do just is not right (as it may be your opinion). I know for a fact that gays and lesbians do not suffer emotional problems because of my life and the many lesbians I know. I have a wedded partner and knowing how this world cannot seem to constitute the way people choose to live their lives, we have to choose to keep our sanctity of marriage quiet out of fear from getting beaten or killed as a result. So as for California may have it I'm all for it and hopefully people will be able to get on with their lives and live without the fear of people with opinions like yourself.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-16-1999
Sat, 02-21-2004 - 3:51am
I'm confused.... A privilege is something that can be earned. Perhaps it can be bestowed. Exactly what does a hetero couple do to earn the privilege and why is it that a gay couple cannot earn the same privilege? If we think of it as something to be bestowed... what criteria separates the hetro couple from the gay couple? I don't know about your state, but in mine all you need to get married is the $ for the license and ID showing that you are of age and are not of the same gender.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-16-1999
Sat, 02-21-2004 - 4:00am
I work in a field related to marriage and parenthood. We are not as far from marriage (as we would like to think of it) and single parent households as we would like to think. I'm not sure that the issue of gay marriage will have a significant impact on that issue.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-16-1999
Sat, 02-21-2004 - 4:17am
I'm entranced now.... How do you know for a fact that every gay person suffers from emotional problems? How do those emotional problems differ from those of the hetero population? I mean, I am asking for the facts. Isn't it a little broad to make the statement that each and every gay person suffers from emotional problems. Is there check in point for each and every gay person and not ONE managed to make it to the sans emotional problems list? Good Heavens! Is there a hetero list too and I am just not aware of it? I'm appalled! I am a prodigious maker of lists and here is a whole new world of lists I must have missed. Son of a Gun!
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sat, 02-21-2004 - 9:52am
Hi Angela Welcome

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Sat, 02-21-2004 - 9:58am
<>

This "fact" is supported by your religion, not science. It is a belief not a fact. Please go back and re-read the first post in this thread. It says in part, "A significant proportion of all babies have ambiguous gender development. It has been longstanding -- and now, increasingly, controversial -- medical practice to surgically "reassign" such babies shortly after birth so that they will have only one set of sexual organs."

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Sat, 02-21-2004 - 10:04am
You are correct. Descartes' wrote his famous, "I think therefore I am" statement, which henceforth separated knowledge into two categories: religion and science, removing science from the restrictions of the church.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Sat, 02-21-2004 - 10:05am

Hi Trudy

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
Sat, 02-21-2004 - 10:10am
<>

Even the Bible advises Christians not to judge. I would say if homosexuals have psychological problems (which I don't believe) it derives from their hidding their natural inclinations. Unfortunately, there are fundamentalist in every religion, and as long as they populate the earth there will be bigots.

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