Homophobic Hysteria

DISCLAIMER: The following are my personal opinions of Mr. Vos's writing and quite possibly a few personal opinions of Mr. Vos himself. I try to stay away from that because I don't know him personally (and probably don't want to if he's anything like his writings). But intolerance is something I really am intolerant about... ;-)

"The Homosexual Threat" is a rambling treatise (a copy of which can be found at http://alpha.ftcnet.com/~freedom/colum/vos1.html- this is purposely NOT a link) written by Jeff Vos of the Cyber Nationalist Group. It is set up as a series of "facts" and I'm going to address those facts one by one. I'm going to ignore the rantings in the intro because I'm sure they're all repeated somewhere in this list of "facts". So without further ado, here goes....

Fact 1: You Are Not Alone
Mr. Vos opens by quoting 8 year old opinion polls. Well, I'm sure this issue has had opinion polls taken left and right and yet the most recent one he can find is 1990? It might be the most recent one that supports his position. Personally, I don't put too much stock in personal opinion polls because most people, while having opinions, don't do anything about them. That much is evident in the percentage of people who vote in each election. And that's on the national level. Entire school boards, where policy affecting our children's education is set, are being elected on 10-15% voter turnouts. Aside from that disturbing fact, public opinion takes years to change. When the Civil Rights movement started, the same type of results could be seen. Most people thought blacks didn't deserve the right to vote or to attend schools with whites. But ask those same questions now and you'll get completely different results. The civil rights movement for the GLBT community is much younger than the Civil Rights movement for blacks. So the results of opinion polls now isn't really worth much.

Mr. Vos then goes on to quote Plato, Socrates, Shopenhauer, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine and Immanuel Kant. I have no idea who Shopenhauer was, and I've gotten this far in life without knowing, so I'm in no rush to find out. Plato and Socrates, while great thinkers of their time, don't have a whole lot of relevance in matters of social issues in this day and age. Same goes for Thomas Aquinas and Augustine. There opinions were based on their religious beliefs and because we have the freedom to choose our own religion, it is only natural that others will form different opinons. He quotes Kant as saying that the homosexuality is against the ends of humanity, which is to preserve the species without debasing the person. I do want to address this part.

If one is speaking from a purely Darwinian point of view, homosexuality is against the preservation of the species because it does not lead to procreation. However, defining the "ends of humanity" in such a narrow way is somewhat debasing in itself. If one believes, as I do, that all creation is part of the One Divine, then the ends of humanity is NOT simply to preserve the species but to realize our full divinity, as Jesus the Christ did. To this end, homosexuality advances the ends of humanity because it looks beyond the purely physical trait of gender to the soul that is within the body. The love between two souls is allowed to flow regardless of society's reaction and brings us closer to the understanding of the genderless quality of the soul. As to homosexuality debasing a person, that is purely subjective. There are those who find great satisfaction in doing things many of us would consider debasing. If they derive contentment and inner peace from it, how is that debasing. Personally, I find the hatred being spewed by people like Mr. Vos debasing to the ends of humanity. Human nature tends towards LOVE-- we were made in God's image and God is LOVE. To hate is against human nature and is probably the most debasing of all mankind's activities. I also fail to see how loving someone can be debasing. I'm not talking about wanton sex with every Tom, Dick and Jane that comes along. I'm talking about a loving relationship that has a sexual component. It is not lust but simply a desire to share on all levels with the one you love.

Fact 2: Homosexuals Are an Insignificant Minority
Before I even read what this is about, if we're so insignificant, why get so up in arms about the issue? Personally, from personal experience, I think the 10% figure is an underestimate. The social stigma of homosexuality is still so great that there are many who will not admit to it in public, yet practice it in private. I find this is especially true of bisexuals because we are stigmatized not only from the straight community, who see us as gays/lesbians trying to be straight, but from the gay/lesbian community as well, who see us as gays/lesbians afraid to admit we're gay/lesbian. (Not all straight people or gays/lesbians stigmatize bisexuals.) There is also the issue of bisexuality being a bit more difficult to recognize. For a young woman who has been attracted to men all her life, she may not realize she is bisexual until she suddenly finds herself in love with another woman. Most gays/lesbians say they've always known they were homosexual from a very early age. That is not the case with most bisexuals because there IS an attraction to the opposite sex so one assumes one is straight and just has a lot of very close friends of the same gender.

Someone named McNemar asserts that a willingness to volunteer information in a survey on sexual orientation means one has a higher degree of sexual activity. I would be willing to to volunteer such information and I don't have a higher degree of sexual activity. There is no indication as to whether McNemar is for or against homosexuality and as everyone knows, statistics can be twisted to support all points of view on any issue.

Mr. Vos then goes into an in-depth dismemberment of the Kinsey report on male sexuality, alleging that the children in the study were sexually molested. I do not know enough about the report to comment on it or it's authenticity, but Mr. Vos's comments seem to suggest that children cannot derive sexual gratification from any source. However, the trauma suffered by victims of childhood sexual abuse proves otherwise. Many times it is the fact that they DID derive sexual gratification from being abused that is a major source of conflict for the survivors. If they found pleasure in it, then surely they had to have wanted it so was it really abuse? The human body, even when forcibly sexually stimulated, will react even against the will of the person being stimulated. Here I speak from personal experience. The emotional after-effects are long-term and traumatic.

Children, especially young girls, are reaching puberty as early as eight years old. The hormonal surges that this entails causes sexual feelings that, if left unfulfilled, will lead to even greater problems with sexuality as an adult. I am NOT advocating adults and children having sexual contact. I AM advocating teaching children to fulfill these sexual needs through masturbation. If they do not learn how to fulfill these needs on their own, they will find someone who will fill them for them. Needs cannot remain unmet without deep emotional and psychological damage. It is to be expected that anyone doing research into childhood sexuality will be labeled a pedophile, especially in a country where sexuality is held to be something dirty and debasing.

If children are not how to fulfill their sexual needs/desires, they are open to being taken advantage of by others who derive their sexual gratification through children. If they are not taught what constitutes sexual abuse or how to stand up for themselves, then they will not only NOT know it is abuse but they will think that such behavior (ie, an adult taking advantage of a child's naivete) is acceptable and normal. Yet at the same time, groups decrying pedophilia are unwilling to teach children how to fulfill their own sexual needs. You can't have it both ways.

Mr. Vos goes on to conclude that homosexuality, among a list of other "perversions", is the result of an incapacitating fear of women. So what does that make bisexuals and lesbians?

Fact 3: Homosexuals Disproportionately Molest Children
According to Mr. Vos, there are three reasons homosexuals molest children. They were molested as a child, they lack self-control of their urges and that they are emotionally immature. He goes on to address each of these individually.

I don't know enough about the studies quoted or the people doing the studies to comment on them. But one conclusion drawn was the homosexuality is a learned behavior. If this is the case, where do I fit in? The first openly gay person I ever met was when I was 24 years old. I was not molested as a child and had not need to seek support and good will of this person. I did not meet another openly gay person until I was 33. Now, I'm meeting more new GLBT friends than straight friends, and it's not because I'm going to gay bars or gay rallies. It's because by being open about my own orientation, others have confided in me their own orientation, often telling me that no one else knows about it. Which is why I tend to think the numbers of GLBT's in this country is higher than the 10% often cited.

According to Mr. Vos, "Homosexuals have a need for frequent sexual encounters, partly rooted in the transitory and unsatisfying nature of the homosexual "lifestyle" and partly caused by childish impulsiveness." Oh, really? Maybe some do, but the gays/lesbians/bisexuals I know are not bed-hopping nymphomaniacs. They are in committed, monogamous relationships. How frequently they make love is probably as varied as it is in heterosexual relationships. It is based not on a childish impulse but on a deep love of their partner.

have read my rantings...LOL