Monday, 16 February, 2004

There's alot of debate in the US at the moment on gay marriage. I thought i'd give my views on the subject:

I've often heard it said that being gay is attributed to some kind of genetic flaw. This line of thought allows zealots to throw wood on the fire by saying gayness is unethical because it is unnatural. However, there is a problem with this logic. There are far too many people who are gay for it to be a genetic flaw. Around 1 in 15 people are gay.

Now, if we were to believe the zealots we'd believe that gayness would be a massive disadvantage in reproduction in that gay people are very unlikely to reproduce. If we look at some genetic diseases that put people at a disadvantage with regard to selection pressure, like say Cystic Fibrosis, we find the birth rate of people with these conditions is in one to many of thousands. In the case of CF the rate is 1 in 2500. If gayness was a genetic disease, we'd expect gayness to have a birth rate in this order of magnitude not in the 1 in 10-20 range.

What people forget about sex is that it rarely produces children. My parents have probably had sex around 10,000 times throughout their lives and only produced 3 children. If sex's soul function was to procreate then it is a terribly inefficient process.

I believe that Sex has a dual purpose; Not only is it the way we reproduce but it also allows building of strong social relationships.

Gay people exist in large numbers because the ability to form these relationships (even with your own sex) have stronger bearing on the selection process than your sexual preference.

The US is backward in many ways when compared with most of Europe. Here in Britain, we're just a cough away from gay marriage and damn right too.

Love is love. The state should acknowledge that love on an equal footing because the state should be blind to the sex of your partner.

Simon.

22:10:32 GMT | #Life | Permalink
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