Marriage laws disregard biological reality
Public Forum Letter
Shannon Candice Metzler
Article Last Updated: 09/20/2008 12:25:41 PM MDT
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_10517638As lawmakers and religious leaders rush to define marriage, few challenge the notion of who is a "man" or a "woman." About 1 in 100 births result in a body that is neither a standard male nor a female. And 1 in 2,000 births are intersex - born with some combination of ovaries, testis, vagina or penis or a mismatch between their genitalia and their chromosomes. As a society, how do we define such people - in marriage and otherwise?
Intersex includes the 5 Alpha Reductase Deficiency: individuals who are born outwardly female and raised female, but at puberty testes descend and a penis forms and they discover they are genetically male. Many continue to live in their female gender identity, but some do not.
"Transgender" refers to individuals who do not identify with the traditional roles of their anatomical sex. Some may transition, with surgery, and legally assume the gender opposite of their original anatomical sex. If this happens after an opposite-sex couple has married, it is then possible for two legal females to be married - my present situation (of course, I can't divorce and marry a different woman). The surgeon is now the gatekeeper of same-sex marriage.
