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  "Leave her alone!" I cry, standing up. "Can't you see she's upset!"

  For a moment, the whole world stops spinning. Zoe turns with a ghost of a smile on her lips--grateful because she thinks that my words are meant for her.

  And then she realizes they're not.

  You cannot be married to a person for nearly a decade and not be able to read the Morse code of a relationship: Eyes that meet at a dinner party, telegraphing that it's time to make up an excuse and go home. A silent apology when you reach for her hand under the covers. An I love you smile, tossed at her feet.

  She knows. I can tell by the way she is looking at me that she understands what I've done. That she's lost me, and potentially her embryos, to a woman she detests.

  Then the freeze-frame releases and Zoe lunges toward the witness stand. A sheriff grabs her and forces her to her knees. Someone screams. "I will have order in this court, right now," Judge O'Neill roars.

  By now, Liddy is a blubbering mess. Wade grabs at my arm. "Shut up before you ruin everything."

  "Zoe," Angela Moretti says, trying to push the sheriff off her client. "You need to calm down--"

  "This court is in recess," the judge shouts, and he storms off the bench.

  Wade waits until Angela has dragged Zoe out of the courtroom, until the bulk of the gallery has filed into the hallway to gossip about what they've seen. "What the hell was that?" he accuses.

  I don't know what to say to him. I can barely understand it myself.

  "It just happened," I manage.

  "Well, you better make sure it doesn't happen again, if you feel like winning this trial. If your ex wants to stand up and look like a crazy nutcase, that's fantastic for us. You think a judge is going to watch that and think she'd be a good parent? If she does it again, and I pray she will, you sit with your hands folded and you make yourself the picture of calm. You don't stand up and defend her, for the love of God!"

  I bend my head, so that he can't see the relief flooding my face.

  I have no idea where Wade found Genevieve Newkirk. A licensed clinical psychologist, she's got a Ph.D. from UCLA and has published repeatedly on issues central to marriage, sexuality, and parenting. She's been on radio and TV--local and national--and has been interviewed for web and print media. She's consulted on over seventy-five legal cases and has testified in over forty of them. "Dr. Newkirk," Wade begins, once he's gotten her admitted as an expert witness, "in your work, have you had the opportunity to explore whether homosexuality is genetically inherited?"

  "I have. Frankly, there have not been many studies done, so it's very easy to review all the research."

  "Are you familiar with the Bailey-Pillard studies?" Wade asks.

  "Yes." Dr. Newkirk turns to the gallery. "In 1991 and 1993 J. M. Bailey and R. C. Pillard set out to study homosexuality in twins. They found that fifty-two percent of identical male twins of homosexual men were also homosexual, that twenty-two percent of fraternal twins of homosexual men were also homosexual, and that eleven percent of adoptive brothers of homosexual men were likewise homosexual. Among women they found that forty-eight percent of identical female twins of lesbians were also lesbian, sixteen percent of fraternal twins of lesbians were also lesbian, and six percent of adoptive sisters of lesbians were likewise lesbian."

  "What does that suggest?"

  "Well, it's complicated. Some would argue that the data suggest a biological component to being gay. However, twins who are raised together have the same sort of shaping influences. In order to have a valid study, twins who were raised apart would have to be assessed--and in identical twins who have been raised apart, there is a zero percent correlation; in other words, just because one twin is homosexual doesn't mean the identical twin is homosexual. Moreover, if sexual orientation is genetic, how do you explain the other forty-eight percent of identical male twins and fifty-two percent of identical female twins who wind up not being gay?"

  "Hang on," Wade says. "You're telling me that there are identical twins--twins who were born from the same exact genetic material--who grow up so that one's homosexual, and the other's not?"

  "Nearly half," Newkirk agrees. "This suggests strongly that homosexuality isn't a genetic determination. It may very well be a genetic predisposition--but that's not the same thing by a long shot. Many people are born with a genetic predisposition toward depression or substance abuse and yet don't indulge in behaviors that bring them to the surface. Or in other words: the environment in which a child is raised has an enormous influence on whether or not he becomes homosexual."

  "Thank you, Doctor. What about Simon LeVay's research?"

  "Dr. LeVay was a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute, and he set out to find a physiological basis to homosexuality by studying the brains of forty-one people: nineteen homosexual men, sixteen heterosexual men, and six heterosexual women. He found that a little batch of neurons in the hypothalamus--a batch thought to control sexual behavior--is smaller in homosexual men than it is in heterosexual men. Moreover, he determined that it was approximately the size of a heterosexual woman's hypothalamus--which had previously been shown to be half the size of a heterosexual man's."

  "Does this show a biological basis for homosexuality?" Wade asks.

  "No. First, the hypothalamic region demonstrates considerable range--in some homosexual men the region was the same size as a heterosexual man's; in some heterosexuals the region was as small as a homosexual's. Moreover, the control group was quite small, and the study hasn't been repeated. Finally, we have to wonder whether the brain structure causes sexual orientation--or changes because of it. For example, a National Institutes of Health study showed that, for people who read Braille after becoming blind, the part of the brain that controls the reading finger actually expands."

  "What about Dean Hamer's 1993 study?" Wade says. "Didn't he find a 'gay gene'?"

  "Not exactly," Dr. Newkirk replies. "He found that gay brothers shared a piece of the X chromosome--Xq28--more often than straight brothers did. But again, this study hasn't been replicated."

  "So none of these esteemed scientists have been able to conclusively prove that a person is born gay?"

  "No," the psychologist says. "It's certainly not like skin color, for example. You can't do anything to change your skin color--Michael Jackson notwithstanding. But sexual orientation isn't all nature. There's a hefty dose of nurture tossed in as well."

  "That brings me to your most recent article, 'Beyond Love: Why Same-Sex Marriage Harms Children.' Can you tell us what led you to write it?"

  "There's copious evidence that it is in a child's best interest to be raised by two heterosexual parents," Dr. Newkirk says. "Lesbian partners may indeed be wonderful mothers, but they simply cannot be fathers."

  "Can you elaborate?"

  Dr. Newkirk nods. "There are four primary reasons why it's critical for a child to be loved by both a mother and a father. First, the attachment a parent of each sex has to its child--though equally important--is significantly unique. A mother's unconditional love and a father's conditional love complement each other and influence the way a child grows up. A relationship with both sexes in a child's formative years allows the child to interact with the world more easily in later years. Second, it's a well-established fact of child development that there are different stages of growth psychologically. For example, although babies of both sexes at first respond better to the care of a mother, at a certain point, to hone his masculine identity, a boy must detach from his mother and identify with his father instead, to learn how to channel his aggression and control his emotions. The father relationship is important to the growing young lady, as well--it becomes a safe place to have her femininity validated. Without that father figure in her life, she is more likely to satiate a hunger for male attention in a way that makes her sexually adventurous in inappropriate ways."

  "And the third reason?" Wade prompts.

  "Same-sex relationships have been documented to cause sexual confusion in child