Virginia, USA
— A Hampton doctor has three basic questions
about a constitutional amendment to confine Virginia
marriages to those between a man and a woman.
What is a man? What is a
woman? Who decides?
It is not as simple as it
appears, said Dr. Theodore Reiff, a former professor of
medicine at Johns Hopkins and Tufts medical
colleges.
"Is the state going to
examine us to determine what we are?" he wondered. "I ask
for clarification. I'm not taking a partisan position on
this. I don't know as the state should be in the business
of defining someone's sexual identity."
Some individuals are
sexually ambiguous or indeterminate. Some might appear to
be one sex but carry the chromosomes of another. Some
might have undergone sex change surgery, and appear to be
one sex while they genetically are another.
Reiff has sent letters to
the state board of elections and to state Attorney
General Bob McDonnell asking how the state would
determine maleness and femaleness for purposes of
entering into a legal marriage, if voters approve the
amendment in November.
McDonnell has issued a
non-binding legal opinion that the amendment, if passed,
wouldn't change current state practices that already ban
gay marriages or same-sex civil unions. The amendment
would enshrine the definition of marriage in the state
constitution, in case a judge overturns the current
marriage statute.
Opponents argue that the
amendment could nullify heterosexual cohabitation and
other same-sex contracts, such as wills.
Reiff noted that Virginia
passed race integrity laws in the 1920s that defined a
person's race and prohibited marriages between "whites"
and anyone with even a trace of non-Caucasian blood. The
law was struck down in 1967.
Nazis genetically defined
Jews, with horrifying results, Reiff pointed
out.
The state now appears to
be on the verge of genetically deciding who is a man or a
woman in determining who can legally marry, Reiff
said.
"I think these are issues
that need to be addressed," he said. "It's an amendment
that would be profound in its implications. I think if
the public votes on it, it has to be clear. And it isn't
clear."
Who can marry in Virginia
is and will remain a legal, not a genetic, question, said
McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin.
Whatever sex is recorded
on a child's birth certificate is that person's legal sex
for the rest of his or her life, under state law, Martin
said.
If the sex is ambiguous
or indeterminate, the parents - in consultation with the
doctor - decides what sex is recorded on the birth
certificate. "The state has no say there," Martin
said.
If someone decides later
in life that the decision was incorrect, or gets a sex
change operation, a court can be petitioned to legally
change a person's sex and that decision has nothing to do
with genetics, Martin said.
The question isn't as
complicated as Reiff makes it out to be, Martin
said.
"He's kind of barking up
the wrong tree."
