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Sexual orientation 'gene-linked'

Prof's testimony supports claim of gay community

By Howard Pankratz, Legal Affairs Writer

A persons' sexual orientaiton is established before adolescence and is
influenced by the individuals' genetic and hormonal makeup, an expert on human
sexuality said yesteray during the second day of the Amendment 2 trial.

The testimony by Dr. Richard Green, a professor of psychiatry at the
University of California Medical School, is considered key to the claims of
Colorado's homosexual community that they have a distinctive trait that sets
them off from the rest of society.

Green said people do not "consciously choose" their sexual orientation and
that the orientation is hard to change once in place.

He said 2 to 4 percent of adult males are homosexual, and 1 to 3 percent of
adult females are lesbian.

The state of Colorado, however, charged that the studies cited by Green are
flawed or contradicted by other studies.

Opponents of the measure are trying to convince Denver Distict Judge Jeff
Bayless that gays and lesbians deserve the heightened protection from
discrimination now accorded to racial and religious minorities.  As part of
that claim, they're attempting to show that gays and lesbians have a distinc-
tive trait.

The crux of that contention is that homosexuality is not a chosen orientation
resulting from environmental influences or psychoogical weakness, but is
genetically and horomonally linked.

Green testified that although homosexuality was once thought of as a mental
disorder by psychiatrists, the American Psychiatric Association did away with
that designation in 1973.

But on cross-examination, Senior Assistant Attorney General Jack Wesoky,
representing the state's position that Amendment 2 is constitutional, said the
1973 change had nothing to do with science or psychiatry.

Rather, Wesoky claimed the APA caved into intense pressure from the National
Gay Task Force.

Claim of gay influence
In 1973, the gay task force wanted the designation changed so badly that it
financed the mailing of a letter, written by three men running for APA
president, to 20,000 APA members, Wesoky charged.

He said that letter urged the membership to delete homosexuality from the
mental disorder classification.

Dr. Judd Marmor, one of the three running for APA president in 1973, testified
late yesterday that the gay organization did foot the costs of mailing the
letter.

But Marmor said the APA decision to rescind the mental disorder classification
and his letter "were not based on gay activists at all."  Marmor said it was
based on a year of study that concluded homosexuality was not a mental dis-
order.

Marmor, a past president of both the APA and the American Academy of
Psychoanalysis, said that sexual orientation is determined by gentics along
with environmental and socio-cultural factors.

The sexual orientation of a person is set by the age of 6 and "clearly it is
not a choice," he said.

Views attacked.
But Wesoky claimed that during his 56 years of psychiatric practice, Marmor has
repeatedly changed his views on why people become homosexual.

At one point, Wesoky said, Marmor wrote that people may engage in homosexual
activity out of boredom, for money, or just excitement.  Further, Wesoky said
Marmor wrote that women sometimes engage in lesbian acts because of shyness
around men, or lack of esteem, or as a political statement tied to the women's
liberation movement.

Another key witness yesterday for Amendment 2 opponents was Dr. Marcus Conant,
one of the world's leading AIDS experts, who first detected the disease when
it hit San Francisco in the early 1980s.

Conant warned that should Amendment 2 take effect, AIDS will be driven under-
ground in Colorado rather than be dealt with as a public health problem.

Conant, who has treated more than 5,000 AIDS patients, said that gays are
continually being stereotyped but few gay men actually fit the profile.

However, he said that stereotyping and an upsurge in gay-bashing, including
physical atacks on gay men, has a devastating effect.

He said they fear being tested for AIDS because if they test positive they are
perceived as gay and might lose their jobs, health insurance and friends.

"I can't think of any public health agenda that would be enhanced by Amendment
2," said Conant.