Same-Sex: Debating the Ethics, Science and Culture of Homosexuality

National Catholic Reporter, Feb 27, 1998 by Chuck Colbert

U.S. Representatives Barney Frank, D-Mass., and the late Sonny Bono, R-Calif., enjoyed cordial working relations in Congress and became friends despite their differing political philosophies. Nonetheless, Frank, a stalwart House liberal, and Bono, a toe-the-line conservative, disagreed publicly on the topic of same-sex marriage. Frank favors it, while Bono opposed it.

In 1996 Congress passed and President Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act -- federal legislation defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman and affirming the right of states not to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. At that time Rep. Bono, a Roman Catholic, told Rep. Frank, Jewish and openly gay: "I'm not homophobic. I'm not a bigot. I'm not pandering to hatred. I simply can't handle it yet. Barney. I wish I was ready, but I cant' tell my son it's OK. ... I can't go as far as you deserve, and I'm sorry," he said. "I simply can't handle it. It's nothing else."

Stated on the floor of the House of Representatives, the congressman's candid and poignant remarks hit close to home. His daughter Chastity Bono, a lesbian activist, is a national spokeswoman for gay civil rights.

Mr. Bono, perhaps best known as the male singer in the pop music duo Sonny and Cher, died tragically in a skiing accident early last month. It's a shame that the late congressman did not live to gain some of the insight and understanding found in Same-Sex and On the Road to Same-Sex Marriage. Both books inform and inspire the ongoing national dialogue on perhaps the most highly charged of all gay issues -- the legalization of same-sex civil marriage.

Same-Sex is broader in scope, covering the topic of same-gender marriage and domestic partnerships, as well as the moral and religious dimensions of a same-sex orientation and homosexual activity, the themes of sexual identity and science, sexual identity and history and public policy considerations such as gays in the military.

Corvino's carefully structured book presents differing points of view from a variety of disciplines -- both pro- and anti-gay -- from the theologians, scientists, philosophers and historians. He also includes differing perspectives from scholars within the lesbian and gay community, a wise editorial decision that guards against presenting all sexual minorities (gays, lesbians, bisexuals as one monolithic entity.

Corvino establishes a running dialogue throughout the book, created by a point/counterpoint format that serves well his purpose: "Discussions of homo-sexuality, though increasingly common, are typically strident and polemic. This book responds to this cacophony by providing a forum for reasoned dialogue," he writes in the introduction.

One particularly strong chapter is "The Origins of Sexual Orientation: Possible Biological Contributions" that presents three theoretical models attempting to demonstrate the interplay of biological and environmental factors in the development of sexual orientation. The discussion is painstakingly honest when drawing conclusions: "The current genetic, hormonal and neuroanatomical evidence on human sexual orientation is inconclusive"; and "at present, we simply do not know how or where sexual orientation is represented in the brain."

Such honesty in science and the refusal to mix religiosity with the scientific method is refreshing, considering the "junk" science that "conversion" or "reparative" therapists have been advancing. These therapists and their allies in the "ex-gay movement" contend that gay men and lesbians are homosexual because of sexual abuse or bad parenting or both and that they can exchange their sexual orientation to a heterosexual one with a combination of prayer and counseling.

Intellectual integrity notwithstanding, the content and tone of the various contributors in the book -- the overall lack of loaded and inflammatory language in the presentation of arguments -- keep Corvino's commitment to careful, rational and honest discourse. this feature is perhaps Same-Sex's most important contribution.

There are few topics Same-Sex shies away from, except the relatively new topic of transgenderism. In the first chapter, for example, Corvino disputes some of the common arguments against homosexual activity -- that it is "unnatural," harmful and in violation of Biblical teaching. "Unless opponents of homosexuality are prepared to condemn heterosexual couples who use contraception or individuals who masturbate, they must abandon this version of the unnaturalness argument," he writes.

"Indeed, even the Roman Catholic church, which forbids contraception and masturbation, approves of sex for sterile couples and of sex during pregnancy, neither of which can lead to procreation. The church concedes here that intimacy and pleasure are morally legitimate purposes for sex, even in cases where procreation is impossible. But since homosexual sex can achieve these purposes as well, it is inconsistent for the church to condemn it on the grounds that it is not proceative," argues Corvino, a doctoral candidate in philosophy.