An “ex-gay” group has filed a brief
urging the Supreme Court not to rule in favor of gay marriage because
being gay is a choice.
The Supreme Court will hear oral
arguments in two cases related to marriage equality in March. One
case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, challenges the constitutionality
of Proposition 8, California's 2008 voter-approved constitutional
amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples. In Windsor
v. United States, a lesbian widow is challenging the Defense of
Marriage Act (DOMA), which prevents the federal government from
recognizing her marriage to another woman.
In its friend of the court brief filed
on Friday, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX) asserts
that being gay is not an immutable characteristic.
“PFOX appears as amicus to
address the purported immutability of homosexuality, which is
relevant to whether this Court should declare that sexual orientation
is a new suspect class,” the group wrote.
“The issue is important because a
finding that sexual orientation is immutable could lead this Court to
declare it a 'suspect class' for purposes of the Equal Protection
Clause, which is unwarranted. Such a declaration could improperly
subject state laws or state Constitutional provisions like
Proposition 8 and Congressional Statutes like DOMA to 'strict
scrutiny' rather than the existing legally appropriate, 'rational
basis' review.”
To support its argument, PFOX included
the personal stories of 4 people who decided to no longer be gay:
Richard Cohen, the founder of the “ex-gay” group International
Healing Foundation; Alan Medinger, the deceased founder of the
“ex-gay” ministry Regeneration; Kristin Johnson Tremba, the
author of Sexual Wholeness in a Broken World; and Brenna Kate
Simonds worship leader of the Boston-based “ex-gay” ministry
Alive in Christ.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule
on the cases in June.