The Biology of Homosexuality
by Jacques Balthazart
Oxford University Press
188 pages, $49.99
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT finally ruled on two historic same-sex marriage cases on June 27, effectively overturning California’s Proposition 8 along with the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Given how polarized the Court is on social issues, the legal reasoning was, surprisingly, not all that cautious: Prop 8 was vacated on the grounds that the gay marriage opponents lacked standing, while DOMA was overturned as a federal infringement of states’ rights.
Although the decision pointed out that “DOMA singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled to recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty,” it did not support a national constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
