My own ignorance was revealed to me recently as I found myself getting into email arguments about gay marriage with an old friend who has become a born again evangelical Christian.
Someone I respect, who has made a living as a journalist, ought to know his way around research and rational argument. But this issue seems to be tremendously difficult for many people for some reason. Why that might be so seems worth exploring.
Perhaps there are those reading here that know their way around these arguments and have mastered the sources that surely exist to shed light on what this issue really is driven by.
I generally will challenge people to justify prejudice against gays just on the basis that it begins with judgementalism and, while the result is disclaimed, goes 'round and 'round and ends up with real people getting hurt in one way or another. A gay couple recently went through the torment of dealing with the medical system when one of the two was diagnosed with cancer, went through treatment and then passed away. Why should we deny things like insurance coverage or inheritance rights if the two partners wish to care for each other in the way anyone would naturally want to? Why should we tolerate bullying and assault and battery or worse? What possible justification can there be for these things?
Justifications I have heard given seem to run in types. There are the Bible verses. But these can be impeached pretty easily. The only thing that Jesus was clear about was the New Covenant, which is the core of Christianity. The Old Testament laws and prophets are not important compared with the admonition to love God and love each other. Seems like a clear enough social vision to me.
There seem to be some sources that born again Christians are treated to that indicate to them that a gay couple raising children causes harm to the children. I actually have not been able to find any literature on this. Is there any? Has anyone reading here run across any studies that indicate anything either way? I would tend to think that longitudinal studies have yet to be done. Designing useful studies would be quite a sophisticated research problem and I don't know if anyone serious has attempted any.
I have encountered several gay couples raising children and my impression is that these are loving and healthy families, and the kids are likely to turn out to be healthy adults. I have seen plenty of heterosexual families that were clearly dysfunctional.
So then what? The argument has been put forward that there have never been cultures on earth in which homosexuality was seen as normal and that this phenomenon didn't exist until recently.
This has troubled me, partly because it is so sweeping. Partly because a little bit of evidence that I have seen directly contradicts this. I lived on the Navajo Nation for a few years and encountered traditionals that accept gays. Those who are more influenced by Christian missionaries have been conditioned to be prejudicial to some degree.
The concept of a "Two Spirit" person seems to derive from ancient experience. Indeed the creation myth of the Navajo people includes an epoch during which males and females lived apart. The term means that someone is living in a way that gives them insight into both femaleness and maleness, and this is regarded as potentially a gift.
This spiritual tradition, passed on by those we refer to as medicine men and women, predates Christianity. Since the origins of the people go back into time thousands and probably tens of thousands of years, this would seem to be a pretty good indication that we are talking about a tendency that is deeply embedded in our species.
Why would this be included in human evolution as a trait? One can only speculate. Maybe it is a byproduct of sex being fun in general, which leads to questions about why poetry and appreciation for beauty in all its forms are evolutionary traits. Maybe it has something to do with the way we naturally form bonds with each other and express caring, empathy and altruism, noted species survival traits.
By Googling the key words "history of homosexuality" it only took a couple of minutes to find an interesting essay on this question.
http://www.bidstrup.com/...
For me, this essay resonates with what I know about my own European ancestors. Roughly a thousand years ago, people went through a time that was very harsh in enforcing conformity in order to create nations that could function as units. This period lasting hundreds of years, which gave way slowly to the Enlightenment, was characterized by extreme torture and public executions designed to inflict maximum pain on both the subject and the audience. To this day a lot of people seek to fit in and conform lest they be thought of as heretics or heathens.
Mass culture was in its infancy back then and the innovation that arose with it was psychological control through fear.
One might ask, why it is that Christianity - of all religious traditions - has this history of incredible harshness and violence that continues in milder forms today as prejudices that we must work to overcome?
It has nothing to do with Jesus Christ, who he was or what he preached. It is about cultural control through vivid images of such painful intensity that they can punish through mere reference for centuries. Who is interested in promoting social control?
One of the things that I concern myself with when I relate to the term "progressive," is this long term trend to continue to promote the Enlightenment and to throw off the prejudices that are a heritage of the Middle Ages, to throw off control through fear and to rise to consciousness that empowers all.
When I was a child, my mother took me to live for a short time with her mother in Cleveland, Ohio. Very quickly I found some playmates who were just children out in the neighborhood. My mother saw me with them and was horrified.
I was lectured on how I was not to play with the dagos, the wops, the kikes, the hunkies, the you-name-its. I remember being confused because this cast of characters sounded intriguing.
Looking into this later, it began to become clear that old attitudes from various grudges that people kept were able to survive through attitudes it didn't occur to people to notice or question from generation to generation to generation.
It is astounding that, two hundred and some years after the ink has dried on America's founding documents, we still have arguments and issues about basic social justice questions. It shows how slow real progress in human nature is. Nevertheless this legacy we have inherited comprises ideals we must aspire to. The idea that "All men are created equal..." was and still is a departure from this older European grudge nursing.
Are these the basic arguments that support prejudice against gays that others have run across?
What kind of experience do other people here have with trying to engage on this issue?
What do you think drives this and what might be changing it for future generations?
Are there any particularly good books you would like to recommend?
I am in the process of moving to Washington State. The principle opposition to going forward with writing gay marriage into law there is the born again Christian evangelicals. Signatures are being gathered in churches. A short campaign will burst forth after enough of these people have signed this to create a referendum. From what I understand the evangelicals are out numbered on this.
But these sorts of arguments will become part of the everyday conversation.
Got thoughts?