Monday, November 8, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Via 365gay: Corvino: Gay is not “unnatural”
It’s interesting the things that push us over the edge.
A few weeks ago, I was participating in a marriage debate with Glenn Stanton, a Focus on the Family researcher whom I’ve debated many times in the last half-dozen years.
During the Q&A, an audience member made the bizarre claim that homosexuality did not appear in his (Native American) culture until it was introduced via rape by Europeans. The claim was not just bizarre but offensive, and I expected Glenn to counter it. (I have often come to his defense in the past when people on my side make bizarre and offensive claims.) Instead, Glenn jumped in and started talking about how homosexuality is “unnatural.”
Say what?
It’s not as if I hadn’t heard the “unnatural” claim before. Indeed, it has roots in otherwise respectable philosophers like St. Thomas Aquinas, and finds expression today among notable conservative academics like Robert George of Princeton and John Finnis of Oxford and Notre Dame.
But I had never heard it from Glenn, and when it came in the wake of an audience member’s linking homosexuality to rape, I lost my cool.
During the ride back to the airport that day I expressed my anger and disappointment that Glenn would fail to challenge the audience member’s strange claim. It’s one thing to oppose marriage for gays and lesbians, I told him, and quite another to remain silent while someone claims that homosexuality is the “unnatural” result of sexual abuse.
Particularly in light of the recent string of gay teen suicides, such myths must be forcibly demolished.
A few weeks later we were speaking together in Missouri, and once again Glenn made the claim that homosexuality is “unnatural.” I asked him again to clarify, and he seemed unable to say more than that “marriage between men and women is a human universal”—something he says in every one of our debates—and that no society in history has accepted homosexuality without effort (a debatable point of dubious significance).
None of these claims were new to me. But the “unnaturalness” wording continued to rub me the wrong way.
I’m still trying to figure out why this bothers me so much. After all, I disagree with Glenn about a lot of important issues—our relationship is rooted in debate, after all. Much of what he believes I find harmful and wrong. Why would this particular claim stand out?
What’s more, the claim that homosexuality is unnatural strikes me as largely impotent. Homosexuality appears, not just across human cultures, but also in hundreds of other species. More to the point, many valuable things are “unnatural” in some sense: airplanes, eyeglasses, iPhones, and government, to take a random list. Unless “unnatural” can be backed up with some morally significant explication, it has no force.
Or at least, no MORAL force. Its force is emotive and rhetorical. And perhaps that’s what bothers me.
We call sexual activities “unnatural” when we want to evoke a certain horror—such as, for example, when we speak of necrophilia and bestiality, rather than, say, adultery. (I’m putting aside here natural law theorists, who hold that all immoral acts are unnatural—because such acts are against reason, which is central to human nature.) The term suggests not merely something bad, but something monstrous and disgusting.
Such rhetorical flourish makes sense if evoking disgust is one’s goal. But I don’t think that’s an acceptable goal in reasoned discussions of same-sex marriage. Hence my dismay.
In the years I’ve debated this issue, I’ve done my part to foster discussions that produce more light than heat. For example, I’ve argued (sometimes in the face of criticism) that the term “bigot” should be used sparingly, because it’s a conversation-stopper.
“Unnatural,” for me, is a similar conversation-stopper.
I don’t know whether Glenn intended to evoke disgust by his use of the term. But I now expect him to know better.
A few weeks ago, I was participating in a marriage debate with Glenn Stanton, a Focus on the Family researcher whom I’ve debated many times in the last half-dozen years.
Say what?
It’s not as if I hadn’t heard the “unnatural” claim before. Indeed, it has roots in otherwise respectable philosophers like St. Thomas Aquinas, and finds expression today among notable conservative academics like Robert George of Princeton and John Finnis of Oxford and Notre Dame.
But I had never heard it from Glenn, and when it came in the wake of an audience member’s linking homosexuality to rape, I lost my cool.
During the ride back to the airport that day I expressed my anger and disappointment that Glenn would fail to challenge the audience member’s strange claim. It’s one thing to oppose marriage for gays and lesbians, I told him, and quite another to remain silent while someone claims that homosexuality is the “unnatural” result of sexual abuse.
Particularly in light of the recent string of gay teen suicides, such myths must be forcibly demolished.
A few weeks later we were speaking together in Missouri, and once again Glenn made the claim that homosexuality is “unnatural.” I asked him again to clarify, and he seemed unable to say more than that “marriage between men and women is a human universal”—something he says in every one of our debates—and that no society in history has accepted homosexuality without effort (a debatable point of dubious significance).
None of these claims were new to me. But the “unnaturalness” wording continued to rub me the wrong way.
I’m still trying to figure out why this bothers me so much. After all, I disagree with Glenn about a lot of important issues—our relationship is rooted in debate, after all. Much of what he believes I find harmful and wrong. Why would this particular claim stand out?
What’s more, the claim that homosexuality is unnatural strikes me as largely impotent. Homosexuality appears, not just across human cultures, but also in hundreds of other species. More to the point, many valuable things are “unnatural” in some sense: airplanes, eyeglasses, iPhones, and government, to take a random list. Unless “unnatural” can be backed up with some morally significant explication, it has no force.
Or at least, no MORAL force. Its force is emotive and rhetorical. And perhaps that’s what bothers me.
We call sexual activities “unnatural” when we want to evoke a certain horror—such as, for example, when we speak of necrophilia and bestiality, rather than, say, adultery. (I’m putting aside here natural law theorists, who hold that all immoral acts are unnatural—because such acts are against reason, which is central to human nature.) The term suggests not merely something bad, but something monstrous and disgusting.
Such rhetorical flourish makes sense if evoking disgust is one’s goal. But I don’t think that’s an acceptable goal in reasoned discussions of same-sex marriage. Hence my dismay.
In the years I’ve debated this issue, I’ve done my part to foster discussions that produce more light than heat. For example, I’ve argued (sometimes in the face of criticism) that the term “bigot” should be used sparingly, because it’s a conversation-stopper.
“Unnatural,” for me, is a similar conversation-stopper.
I don’t know whether Glenn intended to evoke disgust by his use of the term. But I now expect him to know better.
John Corvino, Ph.D. is an author, speaker, and philosophy professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. His column “The Gay Moralist” appears Fridays. For more about John Corvino, or to see clips from his “What’s Morally Wrong with Homosexuality?” DVD, visit www.johncorvino.com.
Later this month he will be one of the speakers at the Skepticon convention in Missouri: http://www.skepticon.org/
Email Quote of the Day from a colleague:
"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it. "
-John Stuart Mill
Letter to the Conservative MP, Sir John Pakington (March 1866)
Put in contemporary terms, I suppose, while it is not the case that the Republicans are generally stupid, stupid people are generally Republican. - Prof B. D.
Via JMG: Defense Sec. Robert Gates Urges Senate To Repeal DADT In Lame Duck Session
Today Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Congress should hurry up and repeal DADT before the new members arrive in January. But it doesn't sound like he thinks they will. "I would like to see the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" but I'm not sure what the prospects for that are," Gates said Saturday, as he traveled to defense and diplomatic meetings in Australia. Unless the lame-duck Congress acts, the repeal effort is considered dead for now. The current, Democratic-controlled Congress has not acted to lift the ban, which President Barack Obama promised to eliminate. In his postelection news conference Wednesday, Obama said there would be time to repeal the ban in December or early January, after the military completes a study of the effects of repeal on the front lines and at home.
Via JMG: Photo Of The Day - Barcelona Pope Kiss-In
Hundreds of homos staged a protest kiss-in as the Pope-Mobile passed in Barcelona today.(Tipped by JMG reader Jimmy)
Via Truthout: Be Careful What You Wish For
William Rivers Pitt, Truthout: "The Senate still belongs to Harry Reid and the Democrats, but by a smaller margin, and while the House is far in the lead when it comes to having new members with certifiable brain damage, the Senate also has some members who are no slouches in Teh Crayzee department. Jim DeMint is a perfect example of the latter, and it may come to pass that DeMint will find himself at the center of a damaging GOP civil war."
Read the Article
Read the Article
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Via JMG: Midterms a Mixed Bag for LGBT Equality
James Russell, Truthout: "On Tuesday, voters ousted numerous LGBT allies in the US House and Senate, such as Pennsylvania Democrat Patrick Murphy, who led the effort in the House of Representatives to overturn the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. However, they also elected a record-number of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender candidates to public office."
Read the Article
Read the Article
Via JMG: American Family Association Declares War On The "Empire" Of The GOP
"The battle now is no longer between the Republicans and President Obama. The battle royale now is between citizen class Republicans and ruling class Republicans. It is a battle between the Jim DeMints of the world and the Mitch McConnells of the world. It is a battle between the Sarah Palins of the world and the John McCains of the world. "Darrel Issa of California a week ago was a conservative hero, ready to hand out subpoenas like candy to get the bottom of the rank corruption in the Obama administration. Now he’s out there, one day after the election, saying absurd things like, 'My job is to make the president a success.' You can forget Issa. He’s a ruling class Republican and now belongs to the Empire and the Death Star that we in the Rebel Alliance must destroy." - American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer, writing on their Rightly Concerned blog.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Via JMG: CALIFORNIA: Prop 8 Attorney Andy Pugno LOSES Race For State Assembly
Protect Marriage lead attorney Andy Pugno has lost his bid for the California Assembly, despite the heavy backing of NOM. Icing on the cake: winner Richard Pan is a strong supporter of LGBT rights. SUCK IT, NOM!(Tipped by JMG reader Ray)
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
ViaJMG: HomoQuotable - Ricky Martin
"Since I can remember, I have felt a very strong attraction to other men and, although I can say that I have also come to feel a lot of attraction and a lot of chemistry towards women, it is men who ultimately awaken what is instinctive, the animal in me. Socially, there are so many prejudices against homosexuals that I thought nobody would understand me, that I'd be rejected, since those are the codes I heard and learned as a child. So since my adolescence, when these desires I first began to manifest themselves, I had to deal with this great conflict between my emotions and my thoughts." - Ricky Martin, in a leaked excerpt from his autobiography. Martin launches his book tomorrow with an hour-long appearance on Oprah.
Via JMG: MICHIGAN: Assistant AG Andrew Shirvell May Be Disbarred For Anti-Gay Stalking
A complaint has been filed seeking the disbarment of Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell over his anti-gay harassment of UM student body president Chris Armstrong. The complaint alleges Shirvell harassed and defamed Armstrong during what Gordon describes as a six-month campaign "of lies, dishonesty, heckling, hate speech and even job interference." The commission could disbar Shirvell if it investigates. "I could not stand by and let Mr. Shirvell continue his reckless, bullying behavior," Armstrong said in a statement. Shirvell already is fighting a ban from the U-M campus. And he faces a Friday disciplinary hearing in the Attorney General's Office.Armstrong's attorney: "We just feel very strongly ... that you can't be a licensed attorney and an officer of the court and conduct yourself this way and essentially terrorize a college student."
Via JMG: Noose Hung At Equality California
Workers arrived at the Santa Ana office of Equality California to find a small string noose hanging from the door. Local police were uninterested. EQCA employee Mel Distel relates her exchange with the cop who responded to her call:"There was nothing they could do, of course, there was no suspect and no crime had been committed. The officer said 'what it is, is a string on a door.' My vision got blurry, I was embarrased and felt stupid for making the call. I took a deep breath and said 'Do you see any correlation between the fact that this is a gay office and there was a noose left on our door in the wake of all of these teen suicides?' The officer said, 'Sometimes you just have to live with being a victim,' and proceeded to mention that his car had been broken into before." That didn't exactly sit well with Distel. "As if that's the same. As if having your stereo stolen is anything like the message 'You should kill yourself.' As if random theft is anything like an act meant to convey hate and stir up fear in the heart of a minority group."Making threats of violence against an LGBT group is considered a hate crime in California, despite the officer's indifference.
via jmg: WASHINGTON: Rally For Sanity Smashes All-Time Metro Ridership Record
Yesterday's Rally For Sanity broke Washington's all-time record for Metro ridership on a Saturday. By preliminary estimates, Metro recorded 825,437 Metrorail trips on Saturday. Whether it served any of those riders very well is different question. The demand for public transit to attend the Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear -- hosted by Comedy Central duo Stewart and Colbert -- exceeded supply. Metro customers suffered long waits at various Metro stations throughout the city. Several even suffered injuries. Nevertheless, the new record fairly shattered the old record, set on June 8, 1991, when Washington played host to a victory celebration for U.S. troops who served in the First Gulf War. That day Metro recorded 786,358 trips. A 1997 Promise Keepers rally in the District has the third-place record, with 735,909 trips.Of course, we'll never know how many more people were turned away from using the subway (as was my group) because the cops were freaking out about how crowded the platforms were. We ended up walking the hour or so from our hotel to the Mall and it was amazing to look down the side streets and see tens of thousands of people streaming up from all directions.
RELATED: Despite the ridership count and all the other attendance reports, the Freepers are, of course, declaring that the lamestream media are conspiring to cook the head count so that Glenn Beck's rally looks smaller in comparison.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Via Truthout: Bigger Than Beck? Huge Crowd Attends Restore Sanity Rally
Steve Thomma and David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers: "Three days before hotly contested national elections, a pair of comedians drew tens of thousands to the National Mall on Saturday with a blend of jokes and music meant to counter some of the anger and fear they see in the country."
Read the Article
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Via JMG: New York Times Asks: Why Aren't Gays Fired Up Against Meg Whitman?
The New York Times observes that there appears to be "little passion" among LGBT voters regarding the outcome of California's gubernatorial race. And that's curious because Meg Whitman has vowed to attempt to defend Proposition 8 in the Ninth Circuit Court, should she be elected.
Intervention would be an “unprecedented situation,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Irvine. “We don’t know what would happen if a new governor or attorney general tried to intervene,” he said. The December appeals hearing could face a lengthy delay, or an argument could be made for a new trial, with the state reversing its stance and supporting the marriage ban. Rory Little, professor of law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, said that a new trial would be unlikely, but that the judges would carefully consider the motion. “The court will take this very seriously,” Mr. Little said. With the election possibly affecting such a hard-fought legal victory, gay men and lesbians should be motivated to vote, but they might not be aware of the stakes, according to political analysts.I think we at this here website thingy have been ringing the Fear Whitman bell fairly loudly, but the above-linked NYT piece places the overall blame for Whitman apathy on LGBT disappointment with the Obama administration.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Via JMG: HomoQuotable - David Mixner
"No one has been more gravely disappointed and, at times livid, with the practically non-existent record of President Obama on LGBT equal rights. Over and over again I have held this administration's feet to the fire in an effort to force them to move forward in our struggle for freedom. As we all know by now, those pleas often have fallen on deaf ears. Our disappointment, anger and frustration is totally justified. What is not justified is to allow those emotions to intrude on our ability to be intelligent voters this election day. We cannot and should not shoot ourselves in the collective foot because of the administration's actions."Why is it important to vote? Let's get right down to it: If the House and Senate fall into Republican Tea Party hands on November 2nd, the LGBT community will be facing the most hostile United States Congress in our history. The election of these bonafide Teabagging wing-nuts could cause chaos, fear and intimidation in our political process. Their ascendancy to power would validate some truly dark and despicable forces operating in American politics. If we think it is hard to achieve equal rights now just try and do it in a Tea Party dominated Congress." - David Mixner, writing on his personal blog. That's just the first two paragraphs, hit the link and read the rest.
Via JMG: Anti-Gay Christian Hate Groups Issue Joint Statement Denouncing Bullying Education
A coalition of the nation's leading anti-gay Christian activists have issued a joint statement denouncing any attempt to teach Christian children that it's wrong to beat gay kids. Authentic Christians will remember several key concepts from Scripture:And who are the signers of the statement? All your old favorites.
1. Homosexual behavior is always a sin, God's plan for sexuality is male/female marriage, and God has not changed His mind about this (Genesis 19; Leviticus 18:22; Matthew 19:4-6; Romans 1:24-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
2. Jesus described marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and that humans were created male and female "from the beginning." Gender change is a defiant and ungrateful sin against God's direction and design (Matthew 19:4-6)
3. Violence against children is wrong. Jesus was very clear in his protection of children and also had harsh words for those who would forbid children from knowing His truth and love ( Luke 17:2; Luke 18: 15-16). "Gay" activists want to keep children from knowing, loving and following the real Jesus Christ. At the very least, schools must not interfere in the desires of parents to raise their own children to follow Christ and live out biblical morality.
4. School boards aid child corruption and insult faithful families when they allow "gay-straight alliances," homosexual indoctrination programs, permission for use of opposite sex restrooms, and any of the other ridiculous demands of the "gay" lobby.
Buddy Smith, Vice President, American Family AssociationMission America's Linda Harvey: "Communities must not allow themselves to be manipulated into supporting pro-homosexual bullying prevention plans, and believers in Jesus Christ need to stand up against this corruption of youth."
Phil Burress, President, Citizens for Community Values
Mathew D. Staver, Founder and Chairman, Liberty Counsel
Peter LaBarbera, President, Americans for Truth
Gary Glenn, President, AFA of Michigan
Diane Gramley, President, AFA of Pennsylvania
Micah Clark, American Family Association of Indiana
J. Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs, Liberty Counsel
Rena Lindevaldson, Liberty Center for Law & Policy
Matt C. Abbott, Catholic columnist,RenewAmerica.com
Labels: AFA, bigotry, bullying, Christianists, education, hate groups, LGBT youth, Linda Harvey, Matt Barber, Peter LaBarbera, religion
Via JMG: Tweets Of The Day - NOM
If NOMbies are brain dead, how come they still produce tweets?Via JMG: Sharron Angle: The Wicked Ways Of Gay Marriage & Medicare Are Destroying Us
Speaking to a Nevada church, Sharron Angle got all caught up in Jeebus and denounced social programs, abortion, divorce, and gay marriage as the "wicked ways" that are destroying America."I confess that we are a nation who has killed our children. I confess that we are a nation who has walked away from the family and allowed divorce even among our ranks. We have walked away from the biblical definition of marriage; one man, one woman, the two become one flesh," Angle said. "We as a nation have been walking away from our constitutional freedom and relying on government instead to take care of the widow and the orphan...we're saying 'well, the government we have all these programs now, aid for families with dependent children and medicare and social security."According to Angle, "the people" should help their needy, not the government.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
I have totally lost all respect for Evangelicals...
Via JMG: Tony Perkins: Gay Kids Kill Themselves Because They Know They're Abnormal
Tony Perkins appeared on NPR today to declare that the rate of suicides among LGBT youths is so high because those kids know they are freaks. And not because they're taught every day of their hopeless lives that God hates them. Via Right Wing Watch: Tony Perkins, president of the evangelical Family Research Council, says gay activists are exploiting the concern over bullying — and twisting the facts. "There's no correlation between inacceptance of homosexuality and depression and suicide," he says. Rather, Perkins says, there is another factor that leads kids to kill themselves. "These young people who identify as gay or lesbian, we know from the social science that they have a higher propensity to depression or suicide because of that internal conflict." Homosexuality is "abnormal," he says, and kids know it, which leads them to despair.Joe goes on to say: "Repulsive and typically full of Christianist love. But what the FUCK was NPR doing hosting Tony Perkins? Do they bring on the KKK to discuss affirmative action? Would they give airtime to Faisal Shahzad to provide an opposing view on the political value of car bombs? Tony Perkins and the Family Research Council are spending millions of dollars every fucking month to enable the murders and suicides of LGBT Americans. What about that is unclear to NPR?"
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
ViaJMG: Obama Breaks Bill Clinton's Record For Number Of Openly Gay Appointees
He's only halfway through his term, but President Obama has broken Bill Clinton's record for the number of openly gay appointees to his administration. Gay activists say the estimate of more than 150 appointments so far — from agency heads and commission members to policy officials and senior staffers — surpasses the previous high of about 140 reached during two full terms under President Bill Clinton. "From everything we hear from inside the administration, they wanted this to be part of their efforts at diversity," said Denis Dison, spokesman for the Presidential Appointments Project of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute. The pace of appointments has helped to ease broader disappointment among gay rights groups that Obama has not acted more quickly on other fronts, such as ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military. In a sign of how times have changed, few of the appointees — about two dozen required Senate confirmation — have stirred much controversy.Obama's highest-ranking openly gay appointee so far is Office of Personnel Management director John Berry, who oversees almost two million federal employees.
Via JMG: ARKANSAS: School Board Member Celebrates Gay Suicides And AIDS
From Independence County, Arkansas: Midland School District board member Clint McCance took to Facebook to mock the suicides of LGBT youth and celebrate the deaths of gay people from AIDS. This is what the queer youth of Arkansas face in their schools. Repulsive. Another Facebook page calling for McCance's firing has already appeared. It looks like the Midland School District has wiped the names of its board members from its website, but Midland Superintendent Dean Stanley can be reached at dstanley@midlandschools.org. Be polite, yet forceful.
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