winkler@harvard.ARPA (Dan Winkler) (05/18/85)
Now that the ERA has been reintroduced, does it have another chance of passing or is it a dead issue? I got the impression that the biggest opposition to it last time was based on its possible implications for availability of abortion and gay rights. Of course, it's not really clear that it would actually have any implications on either of those, but its opponents feel so strongly about those issues that they don't want to take any chances. I can certainly understand the strong feelings about abortion by people who see it as baby killing. But I still don't understand the anti-homosexual sentiment. I would have thought that sexual preference would be considered a completely personal, private attribute that would be about as important as what your favorite color was. Yet I've found that even people who would not discriminate on the basis of race or sex would discriminate on this basis. I think their opposition is based on the (as far as I know completely unfounded) belief that not only is homosexuality a bad thing but that it is also a learned trait that can be spread and should be fought. (One Harvard professor actually expressed concerns that if homosexuality became too rampant we would have an underpopulation problem and attributed the fall of ancient Rome to that cause!) I also don't understand what was meant by the objection that there are important natural differences between men and women that the ERA ignores. Which differences do they mean? Not reproductive biology, I'm sure. So what then? If you have any insights on these questions, please help me out. Dan. (winkler@harvard)