John Shroder at the Article 6 Blog discusses protected groups of people. There are two groups, those who do not have a choice (physical gender, age, race) and those who have a choice (religion, veteran, family status).
SCOTUS is seeing two cases this year on Same Gender Attraction issues, and Shroder notes that the recent coming out of the closet of Jason Collins (NBA center for the Mavericks) throws an interesting light into the subject.
Gays insist that they are born with their same sex attraction. I will not dispute that this may very well be for some gays. However, Jason Collins makes for an important issue: he is an identical twin. His twin is basically his same height and weight, they attended school and college together, etc. Yet, his twin is heterosexual. One would think that if “gayness” was imbedded in one’s genes at birth, both twins would be leading gay lives, or at least have that same attraction.
Clearly, at least in some instances, being gay is (as Shroder calls it) a “choice,” or is affected by nurture and not just nature. That being the case, will the SCOTUS move toward creating a new protected class (historically done via legislation), or will they find another manner to bring gays into the protected class?
Along those lines, if gays receive protected class status, what of those who “by nature” are attracted in other means? What of polygamists or those who belong to NAMBLA? How long before other groups are given protected status, simply because we are quickly rolling down a hill with no brakes?
Thoughts?