Biology Shouldn’t Matter
Steve Greenberg’s plea for gay rights (“A Place for Gays and Lesbians in Orthodoxy,” January 13) includes a quote from “a beloved leader of Modern Orthodoxy” who wrote, “How can we deny a human being the expression of his physical and psychic being? Is it not cruel to condemn an individual for doing that which his biological and genetic make-up demand that he do?”
A plea for gay rights should not be grounded in the genetic origins of homosexuality. There are genetic etiologies for many forms of behavior that are totally unacceptable and, in fact, criminal — such as pederasty, alcoholism, and perhaps even serial killing. The fact that these behavioral abnormalities and disorders have a genetic basis may explain them, but certainly not condone them.
Homosexual rights need not resort to a genetic etiology for acceptance. Whether congenital or acquired, how two consenting adults choose to live their private sexual lives is not society’s business; and should two adults of the same sex opt for a life together through marriage, there is no good reason to deny them this right, whether this behavior has a genetic basis or not!
Carl N. Steeg
New York, N.Y.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
