Happy Coming Out Day!

Today is national coming out day. I hoped that over the last decade we would have become more civilized and extended basic rights to more of our citizens. Unfortunately, the current Reich has decided that a better way to increase the fairness of our society is to take everyone's rights away. Some of us may forget that our gay friends still lack some of the most basic rights that our society affords when we are busy worrying about ALL of our civil rights being trashed in the name of "Bush-Fear", a rather malignant fever going around these days.

Many people speak out against homosexuality being against the teachings of Christ. It was so important to Christ...that he never said a word about it. There is condemnation in the old testament, so if your Jewish I understand your religious objection. It is also clear that Paul wasn't a fan of the gay lifestyle, but why should his opinion trump the big man in the religion? I think it is time to think critically about this. Unless you follow all 613 commandments in the OT, don't talk to me about the OT and unless you call yourself a Paulian and not a CHRISTian, don't tell me that Paul's hangups ought to be Christ's doctrines. Take a deep breath and accept that for all of recorded history the world seems to be created about 90% heterosexual and 10% homosexual. Do you think that if this was an error, God might have picked up on it and changed his/her ways by now?

Have you ever thought critically about the way that we tend to overlay our prejudices onto life's events? If you are a woman and a man "hits on you", we call that a man doing what men do. No big deal. If you are a guy and a women "hits on you", how much more frequently do we apply some pejorative like "nympho", "slut", or at least "a bit forward." (Myself, I just say "Yes Ma'am!). If you aren't interested, however, don't we just say "No thank you?" But if you are a guy and a guy hits on you - can you just say "No thank you?" I've done it. It works! Many men seem to have a different reaction however. What do they do if someone offers them some unwanted food, like weinerschnitzel and they don't like weinerschnitzel?? Well, maybe that's the same question.

These are three exactly analagous situations and yet, many people's perceptions are very different.

If you listen to some of the religious leaders who yak against homosexuality, you will hear that a person making such an inquiry on a same sex basis is some type of recruiter for some supposed "alternative lifestyle." Why aren't men hitting on women considered to be heterosexual recruiters? Is sexuality like enlisting in the Army? They need recruiters? Why aren't there "Be As Gay As You Can Be" ads on TV? I don't know about you but I didn't need any recruiting to my sexual preference.

I read some conservative web sites that suggest that all homosexuals are promiscuous and this is the great sin of their "lifestyle." In fact, homosexual individuals run the same gamut as heterosexual individuals; Some are quite prolific sexually and some could take it or leave it. But it seems all the rage among conservative people these days to be "faithful" to their "beliefs" no matter how enormous the collection of facts that contradict them. Have I used enough quotation marks tonight?

In fact our closest primate relative (WARNING: Creationists should stop reading here and go pray for me!) the bonobo has a society where sex is a very important and frequently used tool. Conflict is often settled with sexual relations between the parties and the bonobo society is characterized by promiscuous females. Now scientifically, the term promiscuous doesn't carry the connotation that it carries in our everyday jargon. In this sense it merely means females who mate with multiple males. No value judgment added. I guess that in some ways our society is a reflection of just how much shame it takes to overcome our DNA. Now I should have put overcome in quotes because we don't really overcome it do we? We just move it to a lower level and let it operate under the table where it can cause a lot more trouble.

And finally on a National Coming Out day when Mark Foley probably isn't celebrating his recent outing, let's all remember that if we are going to make a connection between sexual preference and pedophilia that homosexuals are underrepresented among pedophiles. If we abhor any group for their greater proclivity for pedophilia, that could only be the heterosexuals. I vote for calling pedophiles pedophiles and leaving sexual preference out of the discussion.