By Mike Weland
Publisher
In the wake of news last week of a three-day queer pride event this June, I was compelled by the comments to add an addendum to my Facebook notice, not to smooth ruffled feathers, but to elicit thought on the mostly one-sided view that prevailed.
“There is a vast difference between those of the LGBTQ persuasion, undoubtedly biological, and those who engage in sexual assault, coercion, pedophilia or other sex crimes, no matter their sexual orientation,” I wrote. “As with heterosexuals, the love lives of the former are no one else’s business and ought not be subject to hatred, ridicule or marginalization (remember how that thing with the witches turned out?) Save your hatred and loathing for those whose actions cause actual irreparable harm. You’ll seem far less ignorant and far less sanctimonious. And you’ll be right.”
The response was as expected and I’m certain this expression of my opinion, set down in writing, will be met with the same derision.
“Wow Mike … that is quite a hateful and loathful response there man,” one wrote. “Maybe next time you could follow your own sage advice. You’ll seem far less ignorant, and far less sanctimonious.”
He left out the key part of the phrase, though … that I am right.
I deleted some of the more barbed of the comments that I deemed went too far in their attack and, as usual, I was chastised for stifling opinion, for assaulting their sacred right to free speech.
I agree we are all entitled to our opinions and that we all have the right to express them. However, I give opinions used to belittle, hold down or oppress others far less weight than I give the opinion of the man with the knee on his neck begging to breathe, to stand up.
Opinions aren’t sacred, aren’t everlasting and they aren’t always right. Nearly all our conscious actions are conceived from opinions, our thoughts, and only a fool would not be wary of derogatory or threatening opinions expressed, especially when that opinion expresses derision for who a person is, or is perceived to be, rather than what that person does or has done.
“In regards to the transgender/homosexual movement, we believe it is morally wrong,” a gentleman wrote. “Our position is not all that different than people who think guns should be banned – they believe that is morally wrong.”
I am of the opinion that your opinion falls short on both counts, sir. A gun isn’t morally wrong, it is an object, a tool. One that can, with but a fleeting moment’s thought, be used to accomplish an irreparable action that could have been avoided had no gun been close at hand. It would be a foolish mommy who let toddler baby keep the shiny sharp knife she pulled off the counter because she cries when you try take it away. It’s not a matter of morals, it’s common sense.
And to say certain forms of human sexuality are morally wrong is akin to saying being brown is morally wrong, having blue eyes is morally wrong, to be born with a grave illness is morally wrong, to have been born over there rather than here. To contend that people have a choice about their sexuality is to deny the evidence of your eyes.
Stealing is morally wrong. Lying is morally wrong, murder. Rape, exploiting the sexuality of others, pedophilia, using others by force or coercion to satisfy your own lust, pandering the vulnerable and profiting by their exploitation, those things are morally wrong.
“No matter what you say, there are two and only two sexes! Man and woman!”
Yes, and not quite 400 years ago one of the great polymaths of human history was deemed a heretic, forced to recant his greatest scientific achievement and confined to his home for the last nine years of his life for the blasphemy of expressing his opinion, based on empirical evidence, that the Earth circled the sun, which contradicted the teachings of the church, based on no evidence, that Earth was most high of all the celestial bodies, and that everything in the cosmos except perhaps the Biblical heaven, which is “up there,” revolves around the Earth.
Galileo was right. And in 1992, as NASA’s Galileo spacecraft passed by Jupiter, the planet its namesake discovered in 1610, the church finally admitted its error and “exonerated” Galileo Galilei.
Indeed, for humans and other of the “higher” animals … even for many of the plants … there are but two sexes. And of all the ways sexuality can be expressed, only a male and a female can successfully reproduce. Except, of course, for those species that reproduce asexually, such as the Komodo dragon, certain sharks, plants, ants, birds, lizards and fishes that “do it” by binary fission, budding, fragmentation and more.
Oh … and two human sexes? Nope, there are actually three, the third being hermaphrodites, people who have both ovarian and testicular tissue and either female or an ambiguous sexual anatomy, meaning, well, we don’t really know.
Now referred to by the more polite term “intersex,” they may have genital features of both sexes or not be fully developed. The characteristics of the child’s genitals may or may not match their internal sex organs or their genetic sex. And outwardly, they look an awful lot just like the rest of us. No horns, no tails.
Okay. Only three sexes.
In computing, there are only two numbers, zero and one, two states, on and off. Isn’t it ironic that the father of modern computing, Alan Turing, the gentleman who led the effort to break Germany’s daunting Enigma code during World War II, was an outed closet gay, who pled guilty to the charge of gross indecency, chose probation and chemical castration over imprisonment and committed suicide at age 41, not liking the “new man” he’d become.
In September, 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown apologized to Turing, saying that he had been treated “terribly” and that the outcome of World War II could have been quite different had it not been for Turing’s efforts.
Look around you and consider that there are only three primary colors; red, green and blue. In chemistry as in biology, small numbers aren’t limits, they are merely stepping stones to the grandeur that is nature.
Indeed, it is surprising that there are so few expressions of human sexuality. While scientists don’t know the exact cause of sexual orientation, they theorize that it is caused by a complex interplay of genetic, hormonal and environmental influences.
The boys who wrote the Bible around 2,000 years ago (about 4,000 years after the creation of the heavens and the Earth) had no idea of any of the science … but they had gay people. About 25 Bible verses make mention of homosexuality, men laying with men, and pretty much every one labels it a sin.
But no mention in old testament or new of lesbians, women who lie with women, which seems odd. They had those back then, too.
Some think Ruth and Naomi, two Biblical heroines, might have been lesbians, but no mention of abomination as to their supposed deviancy. In fact, they are said to have been favored of God.
I wonder why that is? I forgot, can you tell me again what gender were the men who allegedly wrote the Bible, inspired by God?
Our nation’s Declaration of Independence proclaims that all men (and women) are created equal. It does not tell you that you have to like those different than you, hang out, go to the same clubs or mingle at the office party. We can all take pride in who we are, our heritage, our ancestry, but no one has the right to deem they or theirs superior, more entitled, a little more equal.
If you wouldn’t like being treated as you or yours treat others over traits they were born with; hair color, skin color, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, quit treating them so. If they rise up and demand equal rights, realize they aren’t trying to take rights from you … they aren’t flaunting their difference or trying to corrupt you, they’re asking you to get your knee off their neck, for equal rights under the law, equal opportunity to avail themselves of their talents, equal ability to pursue their dreams, to be useful, to be happy.
There is nothing wrong with disliking or even hating what gays might be doing, to consider it wrong or immoral. You have that right … don’t do those things. You have the absolute right to pray to and seek guidance from your God and, as long as it’s legal, the right to do as your God commands. You even have the right, if I’m willing to listen (I’m not) to preach, proselytize, prophesize, perform miracles, remove cancers, play with deadly vipers, speak in tongues and do your best to “save” me, just as I have the right to tell you I’m not interested.
We are all entitled to our thoughts, our opinions, and we all have the same rights to express them. If those thoughts lead some to take actions that break our nation’s laws, let them be prosecuted as individuals for their deeds. If those thoughts and opinions lead others to high achievement, accomplishment or great esteem, let each be rewarded as individuals … for their deeds.
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Jesus
“Whatever is disagreeable to yourself, do not do unto others.”
The Buddha
Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.”
Confucius
“Regard your neighbor’s gain as your gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.”
Taoism
“Do unto all men as you would wish to have done unto you; and reject for others what you would reject for yourself.”
Islam
“Don’t do unto others what you don’t want done unto you; wish for others what you wish for yourself.”
Hinduism
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Christianity
“Love your neighbor.”
Judaism