“There are two predominant narratives that circulate within American society that help to explain the difficulty that lesbians and gays face in adopting children and establishing families. First, there is the story of lesbians and gays that centres on their sexuality. Whether because of disgust, confusion, or ignorance about homosexuality, lesbian and gay sexuality dominates the discourse of not only same-sex adoption, but all lesbian and gay issues. The classification of lesbians and gays as ‘exclusively sexual beings’ stands in stark contrast to the perception of heterosexual parents as ‘people who, along with many other activities in their lives, occasionally engage in sex.’ Through this narrative, lesbians and gays are reduced to one-dimensional creatures, defined by their sex and sexuality.”[1] [Footnote omitted]
Such false classifications must be rejected. Our law has never proscribed consensual sexual acts between women in private[2] and the laws criminalising certain consensual sexual acts between males in private and certain acts in public have been declared constitutionally invalid.[3]
- ↑ Timothy E Lin “Social Norms and Judicial Decisionmaking: Examining the Role of Narratives in Same-Sex Adoption Cases” in 99 Columbia Law Review 739 (1999) at 741–2.
- ↑ The Sodomy case above n 34 at para 14 and the authorities there referred to.
- ↑ Id.
