In this rant, I use hyperbole by replacing "oppression" with "terrorism".
Sexual intolerance is a form of terrorism. It does not matter if you are a homophobe or a gay or straight extremist targeting bisexuals.
Both gay & straight extremists are terrorists practicing sexual intolerance against bisexuals through false confusion. An example of this is when either gays or straights call bisexuals 'confused', and project their confusion about them.
Homophobes practice the same form of terrorism against homosexuals through homophobic acts, usually involving violence.
In 1892 the words "heterosexual" and "bisexual" were coined in their modern definition by Charles Gilbert Chaddock's translation of Kraft-Ebing's Psychopathia Sexualis.
Though much of the 19th Century was full of nations decriminalizing or legalizing homosexuality, In 1910 the first step into politics was taken by Emma Goldman, an American anarchist who championed lesbianism.
In 1933 the first sex change operation was made in Germany at the Institute of Sexology. Because of the Institute's stance on transexuality & transgender, and positive outlook regarding sex education, contraception, family planning, treatment of STDs, women's emancipation, and the call for civil rights and social acceptance for homosexual and transgender people, the Nazi Party targeted it to deal with the "homosexuals".
However, there was a quiet legalization of homosexual acts, throughout the Great Depression. By the time the war era arrived, Iceland, Switzerland and Sweden decriminalized homosexuality. In Surinam the legal age for homosexuals and heterosexuals was 20. Near the latter part of the 1940s, Poland makes the age of consent 15 years of age for all sexual acts, homosexual or heterosexual, thus bucking the trend in Russia when it had gone illegal again in 1934, possibly due to pressure from the Russian Orthodox church.
In the 1950s, anti-homosexual sentiment peaked in England with Alan Turing's suicide in 1954 by cyanide when faced with the prospect of two years in prison or libido-suppressing hormone treatment. This was due to the false scientific rationalization that homosexuality was a sickness rather than the normal part of the spectrum of homosexuality, bisexuality, and heterosexuality.
Two years prior to this event in England, the world's first transexual operation happened when Christine Jorgensen, who was born male, was surgically altered to be female. Her change from man to woman started first hormone replacement, and later surgery.
Regarding Christianity and homosexuality, while the Bible and many denominations condemn it, there was no punishment proscribed. Indeed, any violence against a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transsexual person conflicts with the message of peace that Christians live by. For it is not a failure of character that makes a person become oriented towards his or her choice of partner. Rather it is genetics and nurturance which leads to the choice of homosexuality. Indeed, this choice is a neutral choice, but it has led to the assumption that a person should be either homosexual or heterosexual, lesbian or heterosexual.
This assumption is an invalid one because it uses the either-or fallacy to be imposed on a person who may be from any part of the spectrum of homosexual, bisexual and heterosexual; the crossing-over (male to female and female to male) of transgender and transsexuality; and the spectrum of lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual.
Once their sexual identity is confirmed, there may be a handful of homosexual and heterosexual extremists who are confused by the bisexual. This confusion is projected onto the bisexual, and leads to bullying not only from heterosexuals but also from homosexuals.
In an ideal world, with all people being equal, the bisexual professes to love both male and female adults of like-mindedness equally. However, the solution is to make your own choices which you can live with, and to accept the fact that the world is actually more open-minded about you as long as you be calm and loving without radicalizing your sexuality.
Militancy within the LGBT only attracts the radicals who may use the same tactics available to the heterosexuals. Gay pride is fine, but using that militant bravado to be divisive within the community led the bisexuals to quietly form their own community, far apart from the madding crowd.
In short, the world accepts the LGBT community provided that they follow the same rules the heterosexual does: be discreet, no bragging about sexual conquests, and above all, use good cheer and tact in the face of adversity.
No comments:
Post a Comment