Some people listen to or read my unorthodox personal viewpoints and assume from jump that I am probably a morally bankrupt individual. On the contrary, much of what I believe is based upon my basic compassion for other people. I believe that people in our society walk around with the illusion that we are so much more accepting of others than we actually are, but most of us have no problem condemning an entire group of people without thinking twice about why. Simply put, I make it a point to ask the all too often ignored question, “Do people”s beliefs or actions make any logical fucking sense whatsoever?”
- Paul Wong
- Teresa Chou and Bianca Gruber study in the second-floor group study rooms of the Shapiro Library yesterday<br><br>JOHN PRATT/Daily
Homosexuals seem still to have the hardest road to travel in a society that appears to be gradually more understanding all the time. If the recent events in our country have shown us anything, it is that we love to mindlessly point the finger of blame the one which gays are typically on the receiving end of.
A definitive understanding of homosexuality must be established, as there seems to be confusion as to what the lifestyle entails. It”s called homosexual, not homophysical just because a man finds qualities attractive on another man does not mean that he wants to jump his bones I think that it is simply the sexual, intimate attraction that separates the sexualities. Women tend to identify their attraction or admiration of other women quite expressively. Needless to say, men are naturally much less willing to vocally express their opinions about other guys.
One aspect that experts tend to hang up on is the “choice” factor the question as to whether or not gays are born into their lifestyle. I imagine that the first question that parents ask themselves when their kids come out of the proverbial “closet” is, “Where did we go wrong?” Every gay person I have ever spoken to has told me that they knew that they were “different” since they were very young, and that it was not an outside influence that made them that way. You would imagine that, with the hazards that accompany such a lifestyle, no one would choose to want to be this way. Hell, there are gays that try their damnedest to “go straight” to no avail, often resulting in much mental frustration and anguish.
Why? Simply because we as a society will not accept them otherwise. Put yourself in their shoes if someone asked you to stop being a heterosexual and cease the attraction that you have towards the opposite sex, do you think for one second that it would be an achievable goal? Of course not you are attracted to whom you are attracted to!
People have such a myriad of reasons not to accept homosexuality, the least of them certainly not being religion. The Holy Bible is widely interpreted as condemning gays for their lifestyle, basically screwing them over in the hearts of a predominantly Christian society (and we all know that if the Good Book says it, it must be true, right?). Many non-Christians identify it as unnatural and filthy, and therefore wrong. Excuse me, but what exactly entails being “natural?” Is that bleached hairdo on your dome “natural?” Is making love with the use of condoms “natural?” I think of a Catholic co-worker of mine this summer who claimed to regularly participate in anal sex with women, but tried to convince me that it was “unnatural” when men did it with each other. People, humans as a race ceased being “natural” long before we were brought into the world, and assuming gays are born the way that they are, then what makes it unnatural?
If you make comparisons and contrasts, you will have to agree that we treat gays in America today as society treated blacks through most of the last century. Blacks had a separate, denounced culture, as do gays blacks were treated as lesser humans because of the uncontrollable color of their skin, as gays are shunned due to their uncontrollable sexual preferences, and finally, blacks didn”t harm our country by being black, and gays aren”t causing a national ruckus by being gay! The same hypocrites that will lobby for equal rights for all will turn around and shit on homosexuals in the same breath. Where is the logic in that? In the end, past the church and past color and culture, aren”t we all human beings?
I can smell the brains of the sparse-minded cooking already: “Duuhhh, well if he is defending homos like that, then he must be one!” I hate to disappoint you, but no I am quite comfortable in my heterosexuality, despite my frequent tendency to defend homosexuality. I have no problem admitting that I crack the occasional “fag” joke that your average gay person may take offense to, but I am an equal-opportunity shit-talker I clown on everyone. And the honest truth is that I am quite turned off by the sight of two men engaged in sensual physical contact. I am sure that most heterosexuals are in the same boat as I, but there are many things that we find optically displeasing that doesn”t make them “wrong,” does it?
Your child is not going to become gay by having a gay math teacher. You won”t become gay by watching Will & Grace on a weekly basis. I firmly believe that if there exists any curiosity about a person”s sexuality, then it always existed, and the only thing that can control the “end result,” if you will, is the strength of the individual”s convictions. I also doubt that we live in a Clockwork Orange style society where extensive conditioning can somehow alter one”s natural preferences in the end, you are who you are, so my question is, cut and dry: What”s wrong with that?
Knowledge.
Dustin J. Seibert can be reached via e-mail at dseibert@umich.edu.