Gays are the New Women: Suffrage, Gay Marriage and the Brain

Here’s a long look at some of the studies and expert testimony behind the Prop 8 ruling. (Unsurprisingly, the science suggests that gay marrieds have disagreements about tidiness and money, just like straight marrieds, so therefore, I guess we’re all the same.) This is funny somewhat because we’re still working on the idea that men and women are even similar or equal-including in the brain. In a review of Delusions of Gender, a look at neuroscience (and neurosexism!), the Times makes a reference to the paper’s own publication, in 1915, of a letter by neurologist Dr. Charles L. Dana. His contention was that women’s “upper spinal cord” was smaller and therefore they were just not very useful.

This (also: phrenology) is handy to remember for those that get bogged down in science about “gay brains” and alleged neurological or just plain social differences between the straights and the gays. Those women were crazily demanding the right to vote because they were stupid. (Also, their demands were “garish” and “vulgar”-and voting would lead to more mental illness in women!)

But they’re largely just like the selfish activist gays of today, who are excitedly, vulgarly demanding marriages, despite their deficiencies.