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Evidence Regarding the Equal Basis of Heterosexual and Homosexual Unions
Warren Throckmorton, PhD
March 1, 2004
March 1, 2004
A matter of some importance in a decision regarding the legal recognition of same sex marital unions is a determination of the potential equality of heterosexual and homosexual unions. While social science cannot render absolutistic findings concerning such questions, trends can be examined for there relevance to matters of public policy.
My remarks will summarize several recent studies that are relevant to the question of whether same sex unions and opposite sex unions are interchangeable as to basic commitments, including stability of relationship and impact upon the parenting of children. These commitments are basic to most other issues of importance in marriage policy, including economic considerations.
Concerning same sex unions and parenting
It may come as a surprise to learn that if given a hypothetical choice, a majority of psychologists would place a child with a heterosexual couple over a homosexual couple in an adoption proceeding. Research published in the American Psychological Association’s (APA) journal Professional Psychology show that a majority of psychologists surveyed were more likely to recommend child custody to straight parents over gay parents.
To summarize, survey respondents were 388 American Psychological Association member psychologists. These psychologists were not particularly religious, nor did they believe homosexuality was a chosen behavior or identity. The vast majority of these psychologists had PhDs (88%) and had gays or lesbians or both as friends. So this group of mental health professionals was not religious, homophobic, neither were they believers in the environmental view of homosexuality and yet they still preferred a heterosexual couple when placing an adoptive child.
So what did these psychologists know about homosexual couples that bears on the subject of interchangeability? While the reasons for the survey results were not given in the study, I can provide representative research that might cause mental health professionals to examine the parental equivalence of gay and straight couples.
If there is any finding from social science that seems beyond dispute, it is that children do better in families where a mother and father are married, in the home and providing input into child rearing. The massive literature on father absence is just one line of research that supports two gender couples as being the optimal arrangement for child rearing.
Until recently, most, if not all research was conducted using psychologically mediated variables as outcomes such as self-estreem and school performance. However, a recent study by researchers from Vanderbilt University demonstrates that a child’s need for both father and mother has a biological basis beyond the obvious need for sperm and egg.
Ellis and colleagues investigated the lives of 173 girls and their families from pre-kindergarten to the girl's seventh grade year. The researchers wanted to examine the family's role in the timing of puberty for the girls in the study. Specifically, the authors sought an answer to the question: “Does a biological father’s investment in family influence the timing of puberty for his daughter?” As improbable as it may seem, biological fathers does have an impact upon the timing of a daughter’s entrance into puberty. The researchers found that low paternal investment is associated with early puberty in girls. In other words, a biological father in the home providing emotional support to his daughter explains later onset of puberty better than any other variable studied.
Pubertal timing is important because early maturation in girls is one of the leading factors associated with such negative societal outcomes as teenage pregnancy, alcohol and drug use, mental health disturbances and even breast cancer. Thus, factors that lead to early puberty should not be encouraged. This research shows that the importance of fathers in a two-parent family was not simply an artifact of a traditional view of family but rather, a biological deterrent to the early maturity of daughters.
The study authors suggest that by some mechanism not understood, experience impacts biological development to retard or accelerate the onset of puberty and the subsequent entrance into adult sexuality. To quote the report: “The present data highlight the importance of early paternal involvement in the development of “healthy” reproductive functioning in daughters.” The potential for such an optimal healthy outcome is not possible in a female-female union.
Similar findings documenting biological and psychological effects of mother absence have long been accepted in social science. That one needs a female to be a maternal figure has only recently been challenged. Why has this challenge come? Has it been for the good of children? Nothing in the social science literature has caused us to question basic understandings of the biological and psychological need for opposite sex parents; it has come rather due to a concern for adult convenience.
In short, the needs of children render same sex couples at a disadvantage when compared to opposite sex couples for reasons relating to biological mechanisms. Given the biological nature of the case, there are likely additional maturational cues and mechanisms that are optimally related to having close family exposure to both a mother and a father. Of course, the state cannot guarantee such a constellation for all children but it seems irrational that the state would make special effort to accommodate or encourage the least adequate arrangement for the care of children.
Homosexuality partnering and heterosexual marriage not equivalent
Fidelity is a hallmark of marital adjustment for heterosexual couples. However, sexual faithfulness does not seem to characterize gay relationships, especially among gay males. For instance, Julien, Chartrand and Bergin in a Journal of Family Psychology study wrote: “the practice of sexual nonmonogamy among some gay couples is one variable that differentiates gay and heterosexual couples.”
The differences in fidelity are striking. The Journal of Family Psychology report found that only 38% of gay couples denied extramarital affairs. However, according to the Kinsey Institute, 80% of women and 65-85% of men are monogamous in heterosexual marriage.
Research has suggested that extramarital sex is a risk factor for relationship dissolution in heterosexual couples. However, some researchers have reported that male couples' openness to sex outside of the couple constitutes a condition of male couples' adjustment. That is to say, male couples may actually enter “marriage” with the expectation that infidelity is going to be a part of the bargain.
The implications are profound. The state has a compelling reason to promote marriage for a variety of reasons but one is to support the development of kinship bonds based on trust. Whether such infidelity is an intrinsic aspect of same sex coupling cannot be determined from current research. However, the research picture of nonmonogamy in a majority of gay relationships is antithetical to the basic building block of opposite sex relationships.
Sexual Orientation Not Analogous to Gender
Of interest to anyone wanting to make a fair deliberation on the matter of equal protection is the matter of comparability of sexual orientation and gender. Current law and tradition recognizes the union of male and female as being a union of distinct genders. As such, gender is considered an essential category of existence. Marriage is organized around gender and the differences between men and women that are bridged by the marriage bond.
In considering the comparability of opposite sex and same sex couples, the question arises: Is sexual orientation analogous to gender?
The most consistent reading of the research on sexual orientation is that the causes of sexual attraction and the subsequent development of sexual identity are mediated by environment much more so than is gender.
One generally develops knowledge of one’s gender during the preschool years; however, a self-assignment of sexual orientation comes much later and through highly variable pathways.
Gender is a given biologically speaking; one does not choose one’s gender upon reflection alone. Any gender reassignment must be accomplished through arduous measures. However, sexual orientation is known through subjective self-assessment and self-assignment. One person may declare himself gay by a reference to sexual feelings alone. Another person may not consider himself gay unless he has engaged in homosexual behavior. Yet another person may engage in a variety of sexual behaviors with both genders and yet consider herself straight. There is no basis in social science research or law for declaring any of these means of self-assignment to be more valid than any other.
As noted, gender does not change unless through extreme medical procedure, on the other hand, the behavioral, cognitive and emotional correlates of sexual orientation can be quite fluid for many people with change occurring from homosexual identification to heterosexual identification and vice versa.
Gender and sexual orientation are not comparable categories and do not thus require equivalent remedies from state policy concerning marriage.
Summary and conclusions
As a matter of public policy, what state interest can provide the best foundation for a culture and society where both genders are encouraged to care for children and pairing means bonding? I submit the public good is best served by laws that recognize what nature does: male and female bonding is the most likely foundation for family life and resultant social stability.
Clearly there are competing interests in the instance issue of whether to consider marriage a matter of equal protection. However, my reading of the available research concerning gay and straight relationships provides a basis for the state to assert a compelling interest in maintaining marriage as a union of opposite genders.
References
Blankenhorn, D. (1996). Fatherless America.New York: Perennial.
Crawford, I., McLeod, A., Zamboni, B.D., Jordan, M.B. (1999). Psychologists' attitudes toward gay and lesbian parenting. Professional Psychology: Research & Practice, 30, 394-401.
Diamond, L. (2003). Was it a phase?Young women's relinquishment of lesbian/bisexual identities over a 5-year period. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 352-364.
Ellis, B., McFayden-Ketchum, S., Dodge, K., Pettit, G., & Bates, J. (1999). Quality of early family relationships and individual differences in the timing of pubertal maturation in girls: A longitudinal test of an evolutionary model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 387-401.
Julien, D., Chartrand, E. & Begin, J. (1996). Male couples' dyadic adjustment and the use of safer sex within and outside of primary relationships. Journal of Family Psychology, 10, 89-96.
Mireault, G., Thomas, T., & Bearor, K. (2002). Maternal identity among motherless mothers and psychological symptoms in their firstborn children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 11, 287–297.
Spanier, L. & Thompson, L. (1984). Parting: The aftermath of separation and divorce. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Spitzer, R. (2003). Can some gay men and lesbians change their sexual orientation? 200 participants reporting a change from homosexual to heterosexual orientation. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 32, 403-417.
Stein, E. (1999). The Mismeasure of Desire: The Science, Theory and Ethics of Sexual Orientation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stern, D. (1998). The Interpersonal World of the Infant. New York:
Basic Books.
Stokes, J. P., Damon, D. & Mckirnan, D. J. (1997). Predictors of movement toward homosexuality: A longitudinal study of bisexual men, Journal of Sex Research, 34, 304-312.
Throckmorton, W. (2002). Initial empirical and clinical findings concerning the change process for ex-gays, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 33, 216-236.
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