by Maggie Gallagher
RISKY BUSINESS
Very soon, thanks to a pending court case, a federal judge may order your child's school, or my child's, to accept gay student clubs. I know I wouldn't like that. I'd like to tell you why. My objections may or may not be polite, or persuasive, but at least they will be honest. This is what I really think. This is what I want my sons to believe. I suspect I'm not alone:
Men and women are in some way made for each other. Gender is not an accident or purely a social construct; it is part of who we are as human beings. There is a deep, rich, mysterious purpose to sex, calling us out of the bond of our limited selves into a physical, moral, emotional, erotic union, which includes the possibility of generating new life -- a.k.a. marriage.
Some people say they lack the desire that makes realizing this rich sexual story possible. If this is true, homosexuality is not necessarily a mental illness, but a sexual disability. In practical terms, especially for men, calling yourself gay means adopting a risky lifestyle high in sex partners and all the stupid tricks men without wives do to themselves and others. Men who do not need a woman's sexual love create very different sorts of societies than men who do: Even so staunch an advocate of gay marriage as Andrew Sullivan recently defended "the beauty and mystery and spirituality" of "anonymous sex," and confessed that "on a personal level, I have never been in a long-term romantic relationship, and am perfectly happy without one."
Of course, this is only one anecdote. But when you look at the few studies of homosexuality based on nationally representative data, the picture does not get any prettier.
One 1998 study of Massachusetts high school students published in the journal Pediatrics found that the single biggest risk factor associated with the development of a gay, lesbian or bisexual orientation is the use of cocaine before the age of 13 years. In addition, "Among sexual risk behaviors, sexual intercourse before 13 years of age, sexual intercourse with four or more partners both in a lifetime and in the past three months, and sexual contact against one's will" were all associated with gay, lesbian and bisexual orientation. Thirty-one percent of homosexual or bisexual students reported they had used crack at least once, compared to 3.5 percent of straight students; 22 percent of gay students had injected drugs, compared to 2 percent of straight students. Twenty-seven percent of students with homosexual or bisexual orientation say they had had sexual intercourse before the age of 13, compared to 7 percent of straight students. Almost a third of gay, lesbian and bisexual teens reported they had been forced to have sexual contact against their will, compared to 9 percent of straight students.
Of course, gay advocates believe this is entirely a consequence of homophobia. (The study's author adopts this view, too). Boys and girls younger than 13 are doing cocaine and having forced sex because they sense society's disapproval of their future sexual choices. Maybe. But to me, data like these suggest that homosexual students are disproportionately likely to have unprotected childhoods, with elevated rates of childhood sexualization (by either opposite- or same-sex partners the data does not specify) and drug abuse.(This may not hold true for men and women who postpone labeling themselves gay until they are adults.)
Any organization or institutional practice that encourages kids to adopt the homosexual label at an early age is not being kind, healthy or compassionate to children. Nor, might I add, is it kind to undermine the difficult, civilizing task of parents and communities: to persuade all boys and girls that sexual desire is not necessarily its own justification.