Queer Theory, what's that?
John Howard said (in italics):
Bill you know that queer theory is all about how sexuality is socially constructed, don't you?
Well, no. I began my studies in clinical psychology over 30 years ago, and I must confess that I've never heard of "queer theory" before.
They of course take that knowledge, which is pretty much uncontested, and use it to say that therefore, everyone is bisexual by nature and we shouldn't socialize people to be straight anymore.
Huh? First we have the "arrested development" hypothesis that everyone was once gay. Now you suggest that everyone is/was bisexual? Are you suggesting that we resurrect Freud's old idea that all babies are born in a state of polymorphic perversion?
But we are saying that we should continue to socialize people to be straight, because...
So this is the reason we should allow bullies to continue to harass gay students in High School? In a letter to the editor about ten years ago I referenced a then released study which found that gay teenagers were three times more likely to commit suicide than their straight classmates. I stated, "Why would these youngsters choose to be gay and commit suicide if they could simply choose to be straight and live happily ever after? The idea that these youngsters chose to be gay is beyond all reason."
Did homosexuals in Nazi Germany chose to be gay so they could be sent to the gas chambers? What kind of "social pressure" can you imagine that would be any greater than that? So despite the fact that gays have been stoned to death, sent to the gas chambers or hanged as happened recently in Iran, a small yet constant portion of any population is gay through all times and cultures.
Do you think that VP Cheney and his wife have a gay daughter because they failed to properly "socialize" her?
That some people are gay is just a fact of nature, and no amount of "socialization" will change that. So the question remains, "How does a fair and just society respond to the fact that a small yet consistent portion of our citizens are inherently gay?"
Also posted at family scholars blog Comment #293
posted by Bill Ware @ 3:28 PM
8 Comments:
Did homosexuals in Nazi Germany chose to be gay so they could be sent to the gas chambers? What kind of "social pressure" can you imagine that would be any greater than that?
You really don't want to get into the whole Nazi-homosexual thing. Tone it down because that tact discredits you.
So this is the reason we should allow bullies to continue to harass gay students in High School?
Actually bullies may cause a lot of kids to wind up gay by undermining their confidence, especially when their bullying is done with GSA offered as a safe haven for the bullied. But this illustrates the complexity of how people are motivated and set on the course of their lives - it's not a planned, chosen, or programmable thing, it is just the way things work out, and we should educate people and nurture our social values so that as many people are able to become fully human as possible, and as few people are left socially infertile as possible.
So the question remains, "How does a fair and just society respond to the fact that a small yet consistent portion of our citizens are inherently gay?"
Well, I don't think we should feel obligated to develop reproductive technology so that those people who feel they can't love the opposite sex can have children with the person of their choice (which is a basic civil right, subject to supportable reasons to not allow certain types of relationships to procreate). There may be some people who are inherently adulterous (indeed, many people report feeling especially turned on, or aroused, when engaging in adultery. The naughtiness and wrongness of it is itself a turn-on and some people seek that out and are unsatisfied with "approved" sex) - but those people who are inherently adulterous or incestuous or otherwise cannot be satisfied by our approved relationships do not need to be coddled by giving them the right to procreate with someone they are not married to, iow, by making adultery legal. They may or may not be tolerated, as each state or culture sees fit.
Suppose that the cause of homosexual orientation was discovered and it could be determined whether a child would be inborn with that orientation -- with as much certainty as with, say, downsyndrome.
Would you outlaw abortions based on that information?
Or, what if it were discovered that someone that thought they were gay was not truly gay, according to Bill's scientific testing methods. Would you allow that person to continue to be gay, or force him to be heterosexual? Would he be able to use that test to assure a woman that he was straight, even though his room is full of Barbra Streisand and Liza Minelli records?
"Or, what if it were discovered that someone that thought they were gay was not truly gay, according to Bill's scientific testing methods. Would you allow that person to continue to be gay, or force him to be heterosexual"
How about just "allowing" a person to live the life he/she chooses"
John,
Sexual orientation is an inborne trait that is not subject to change after birth. Characteristics may appear at an early age, as young as eighteen months. Neither bullying nor anything else in life effects this.
Society has to adjust to this fact and accommodate gays so that they can have as fulfilling a life as possible.
I agree with you, Bill.
I was addressing john howard's hypothetical question. What if your scientific method showed one was not what he felt she was? What would you require based on that test? I say it is none of anyone's business.
Post a Comment
<< Home