Published: July 03, 2006 11:05 am      

In U.S., Constitution overrides Leviticus

In her June 22 letter lamenting the failure, in the U.S. Senate, of an attempt to write a ban on gay marriages into the U.S. Constitution, Jeanie McLaughlin cites Leviticus 20:13 as sufficient evidence "that gay relationships are an abomination."

"It is there in black and white," she writes, "not open for debate by any of us, it is wrong."

Here is what Leviticus 20:13 says, in the King James Version: "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: They shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

Note that this verse has nothing to say on the subject of lesbian sex. According to Leviticus 20:13, only sex between men is abominable. Or, in 21st-century terms, Ian McKellen deserves the death penalty, but Ellen DeGeneres gets a pass.

Note also that this verse has nothing to say on the subject of gay marriage, only gay sex - which is just as legal, in the United States as straight sex. Three years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down U.S. laws banning gay sex between consenting adults. To date, however, I know of no crusade for an anti-gay-sex amendment.

Leviticus 20:13 is one verse out of 27 in a chapter that is basically a laundry list of abominations. Besides gay sex, those punishable by death range from bestiality (20:15-16) to adultery (20:10) to cursing one's parents (20:9) to practicing wizardry (20:27). I know of no proposed constitutional amendments covering any of those, not even in the wake of Harry Potter.

Moving away from capital crimes, Leviticus 20 also mandates kosher food laws that distinguish between "clean beasts and unclean" (20:25) and forbids a man to have sex with a woman while she's menstruating (20:19). Again, I know of no fundamentalist Christian crusades to have these laws written into the U.S. Constitution. This is odd, if fundamentalist Christians truly believe Leviticus 20 is "not open for debate by any of us. Or is only one of those verses beyond debate?

Ms. McLaughlin assures us she doesn't fear or hate gay people, so there must be some other reason she views Leviticus 20:13 as more important than all those other verses. For my part, I side with the U.S. Senate. I say the U.S. Constitution overrules Leviticus 20 any day of the week.