This Friday, thousands of people will converge on the nation’s capital to stand up for the unborn and unabashedly declare their support for pro-life principles at the March for Life. The annual gathering brings together politicians, activists, and advocates who rightly believe that the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling was wrongly decided.
The March for Life does not discriminate; attendees include men and women, Republicans and Democrats, and both gay and straight. If you support the March, the March welcomes you.
In fact, if you happen to be gay, support for pro-life principles should be an issue of key importance.
The American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychiatric Association all agree: Being gay is not a choice. Science has spoken, and decades of evidence have reinforced the truth that attempts to change one’s sexual orientation are futile and, in many cases, dangerous. That’s why 14 states already ban so-called “ex-gay” or “conversion” therapy for minors, a number likely to grow in 2019 as more states consider enacting similar legislation to outlaw the barbaric practice.
If you accept that science has concluded that being gay is not a choice, you should similarly embrace the findings of the myriad medical professionals whose research has proven that fetal humans are capable of feeling pain by no later than 20 weeks of gestation. State bans on so-called “conversion therapy” resulted largely because of a growing medical consensus that the practice was wrong, as well as more personal agreement that the practice was immoral. State bans on abortion after 20 weeks are rooted in the same principles.
If being gay is not a choice, gay people should be mindful of the likelihood that if it ever becomes possible for prenatal testing to identify whether a child is heterosexual or homosexual, the incentive to abort gay babies will become a reality.
Already today, abortion rates for children found to have Down Syndrome in the United States range from a staggering 61 to 93 percent. Overseas, the epidemic of sex-selective abortions — which disproportionately target baby girls — are causing a “very serious and unprecedented sex-ratio imbalance,” according to a peer-reviewed study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
At a time when abortion giants such as Planned Parenthood are suing in federal court to ensure that children with an extra chromosome can be targeted for destruction in the womb, we are foolish to think that this same discrimination could not one day be foisted upon unborn children found to be predisposed to LGBT identities.
Perhaps this is why researcher T.F. Murphy posited more than 20 years ago, in his white paper “Abortion and the Ethics of Genetic Sexual Orientation Research,” that “considerable concern therefore exists that sexual orientation research may lead to genocide against homosexuals through the practice of selective abortion on the basis of a fetus’s genetically identified sexual orientation.”
While they are still marginalized, the cultural winds of America have long been blowing toward greater acceptance of gay individuals. That includes support for adoption by same-sex couples. Gallup polling shows a dramatic leap in support for gay adoption: a seven-point jump over just three years between 2009 and 2012 to 61 percent approval. According to a 2013 study, “An estimated 16,000 same-sex couples are raising more than 22,000 adopted children in the US.”
Pro-life principles provide same-sex couples with the opportunity to raise a family, giving a home to children in need in the process.
Above all else, one singular principle should unite supporters of life and supporters of the gay community: the dignity of the human person.
In the throes of the 2015 debate over marriage equality and the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision, pro-life, pro-LGBT writer and activist Andrea Vale explained the connection between the two causes thus: “Dignity takes several forms throughout life’s stages. It begins with the most fundamental dignity: the right to life. It eventually encounters another fundamental dignity: the right to marry.”
For centuries — even millennia — gay people have been seen as less than human, and the Pulse nightclub massacre reminds us of the pervasive disregard for the value of gay people across the globe. Similarly, the disconnected manner in which many in our society refer to unborn children as mere “tissue” or “a lump of cells” provides a chilling insight into a devaluation of human life that is just as real as those who shrug off violence against members of the gay community.
Gay and lesbian Americans have made great strides in recent years, but they are part of what remains a vulnerable population in too many corners of society, denied equal protection under the law with their heterosexual counterparts. As we approach the 46th annual March for Life, perhaps the most compassionate thing we can do is to link arms with this kindred, oft-discriminated against community, recognizing our connectedness and believing in our shared worth.
If you’re gay, the choice is simple: Choose life.
Gregory T. Angelo is a communications consultant based in Washington, D.C., and the former president of Log Cabin Republicans.
