AS AMERICANS vote in November on such important issues as war, the economy and health care, citizens in 10 states will also face referenda to constitutionally ban gay marriage in their jurisdictions. Amid this national debate, Prof. Kim Forde-Mazrui, director of the Center for the Study of Race and Law, gave a talk last Thursday posing the provocative question: "Are interracial relationships more legitimate than same-sex relationships?" His discussion at the Law School exposed as much about the confused understanding of race in America today as it explored the gay issue.
Forde-Mazrui pointed to a number of parallels between the struggles to legalize interracial and same-sex marriages. Both have faced staunch religious opposition. Both types of relationships have been deemed "unnatural." And courts have been far more willing to protect interracial and gay sex than they have been eager to protect the right to marry. But the similarities between race and sexual orientation stop there.
While some civil rights leaders like Prof. Julian Bond of the NAACP have embraced the comparison, others reject the link between being gay and being a racial minority. As a matter of law and politics, Profs. Forde-Mazrui and Bond are correct; gays and minorities have faced similar challenges. Innately, however, homosexuals face unique issues; their cause is distinct and it should not be conflated with issues of race.
Sexual orientation, if one accepts the prevailing theory among scientists and psychologists today, is innate. That is to say, it is not a choice, as gay rights opponents have long argued. As Forde-Mazrui pointed out, he could not choose to be attracted to a man even if he were paid millions of dollars.
Thus, it stands to reason that sexual orientation is also determinative of a large part of one's personal identity. Just as being male or female is inextricably linked with how one thinks and feels about oneself, sexual orientation has a similar effect. A gay child, no matter what social environment he is raised in, will still be gay when he grows up.
In contrast, race does not have an inherent, determinative effect on identity. Rather, any relationship between race and self-identity is imposed solely from without; it is a product of society. In short, we are not born "white" or "black"; we are raised that way.
If children with Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic and African physical features were all raised in a truly colorblind society where there was no correlation between skin color and culture, they would not think of themselves in terms of race. They would have no concept of what it means to "act black" or to "act white." Even in our race-conscious society, one who argues that having white or dark skin innately determines how one thinks or acts, or what inclinations one has, would rightfully be denounced as a racist. After all, that would be equivalent to saying that those of a certain race are innately inferior.
As self-evident as these truths are, we can always count on academia to turn commonsense on its head. Accordingly, the latest rage for the intellectual class is to declare gender to be fluid while hardening fixed concepts of racial identity. For example, McGill University's queer issues Web page urges students to "define one's gender identity as being more fluid than either male or female
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