Homosexuality doesn’t predetermine life Focus on individuality, not homosexuality

Monday, July 27, 1998

Homosexuality doesn’t predetermine life Focus on individuality,
not homosexuality

HOMOSEXUALITY: Separate ‘gay community’ fosters self-imposed
stereotypes

By Daniel B. Rego

The article "Being ‘out’ gives teacher another role in
community" by Lydia Wrobel only undercuts the reasons why there is
such discord over being gay. First, I question how being gay
requires one to believe and act a particular way. Being homosexual
determines absolutely nothing else about a person in and of itself.
Being a teacher is being a teacher. What is "gay teaching?" What is
"straight teaching?"

When one stresses being gay above all else and how being gay
predetermines how one thinks and acts (basically stressing the
self-imposed stereotype of the "gay community"), then it is no
surprise that straight individuals agree with that gay individual –
that being gay predetermines what they are. This is one of the
reasons why gays are attacked, both verbally and physically.

Being homosexual predetermines nothing. How does it make a
person believe certain things about abortion, taxes and affirmative
action, among other things? It doesn’t.

Homosexuality is only a part of an individual as a whole. I do
not wade into the argument of whether it is genetically
predetermined to be attracted to a person of the same gender or
whether it is a choice since I am not a genetic scientist. However,
one does have a clear choice of whether they actually have any type
of sex at all. After all, we do have the will to control our sexual
urges, whatever they may be.

I argue that by stressing that other things have nothing to do
with one’s "sexual orientation," some gay individuals create a
self-imposed stereotype, and become "self-ghettoized," thus
creating divisiveness and prejudice.

Political individuals of the far left pay lip service to the
so-called "gay community" by stressing differences, thus
emphasizing an "us vs. them" attitude that only fosters prejudice
and dislike. The gay community is an artificial and separatist
construct that only serves to emphasize that divisiveness.

Also, there are many individuals who personally dislike
homosexuality (i.e. they find it unnatural). Why is it that some
homosexuals stress that their homosexuality is genetically
predetermined, while thinking that a dislike of homosexuality is
also a biological response to something that is "unnatural" to
straight people.

Furthermore, the paradox of the perception that "gay is
diametrically different" (stressed by far left politicians) is that
it must force all straight individuals to accept homosexuality
(what ever happened to freedom of conscience and belief?). This
attitude only serves to drum up hatred against all homosexual
individuals. Noting this and other contradictions makes one see why
there is so much divisiveness.Rego is a third-year political
science student.