Treatment of Homosexuals
Saturday, January 01, 2000
It is high time we stopped tormenting people who were born somewhere between the standard hetero male and the standard hetero female.
There are a great many cases where it is plainly obvious to the human senses that despite their genitalia, some people strongly possess characteristics of the opposite sex. These people did not create themselves.
Are there some who fall outside this genetic determination, and nevertheless choose homosexuality as a lifestyle? Nobody knows for sure, but it makes no difference to the issue of acceptance.
Anyone who felt the need to actively adopt a homosexual lifestyle - despite its social hazards - and not because of “wiring” - must be pretty desperate and is perhaps deserving of even more compassion than the congenital cases.
This is not to say that there is no difference in the social role of hetero and homo. For one thing, one reproduces and the other does not. Perhaps the emotional/spiritual development of a child requires that mother be female and father male – just as biology ordains.
But hetero and homo people deserve equal respect – and equal treatment in areas where gender is irrelevant.
Philip O'Carroll