How is it possible that society could honor these people in death but dismiss a core aspect of their humanity in life?
·
Alan Turing, a
brilliant mathematician and computer science pioneer, was an essential member
of the British military team that broke the Enigma code and saved thousands of
lives from German U-boats during World War II. On December 24, 2013, fifty
years after his suicide, his government posthumously pardoned his conviction
for homosexuality. His sentence at the time was the option to be physically or
chemically castrated. He chose chemical castration; medical consensus concludes
that those drugs led him to take his own life (San Jose Mercury News, 12/24/13, p. A15).
·
Sally K. Ride was
the first American woman in space. She held a Ph.D. in physics, was the CEO of
her own company, and co-authored children’s books. Dr. Ride was launched into space twice through
NASA’s
shuttle program. On November 20, 2013, President Obama posthumously awarded her
the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award, and presented it
to Tam O’
Shaughnessy, her lesbian partner of 27 years.
·
Mark K. Bingham
was a public relations executive, a member of the twice-national champion rugby
team at University of California, Berkeley, and a passenger on United Flight 93
on September 11, 2001. He was one of the ones who fought back against the
hijackers planning to crash the plane in Washington, DC. Mark Bingham was a gay
man. He has been awarded numerous civic and athletic honors since his death. His
name is inscribed at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New
York, NY, and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where
the plane eventually crashed.
In some nations, gays and lesbians
face imprisonment and capital punishment. Here in the United States, their full
rights as citizens are restricted in a number of ways. Acts of violence against
gay men and women still occur in this country.
Why would the way a consenting
adult experiences sexual arousal and acts on one of the most human of urges be
the basis of religious and cultural stigma? Why do societies still use this
stigma to discriminate and legislate against individuals with nonheterosexual
orientation?
It’s a complicated question.
Sociologists suggest that
patriarchal cultures encourage and ritualize misogyny. In such a culture, to
suggest that a man has characteristics deemed feminine or has done something
only women do is the greatest of insults. In such cultures, femininity is seen
as weak and vulnerable.
Calling a male a p___y, f_g or
q___r equates them to being a woman; these are fighting words in patriarchal
cultures.
Psychologists suggest that in
patriarchal cultures there is an irrational fear of homosexuality, or
homophobia, due to generalized fear of one’s own sexuality. Many social scientists argue that our
sexual orientation runs across a spectrum and can vary throughout the stages of
development. That such ambiguity may be natural is no comfort to those in a
society insisting on strict delineation of gender roles.
For example, in November 2013 a
sleeping bi-gender teenager wearing a kilt on a public bus in Oakland was set
on fire by a group of teenage males (San Jose
Mercury News, 11/06/13, p A-1). Somehow Sasha’s mere existence so threatened the manhood of this group
of young men that they decided to violently attack a stranger. Perhaps they
needed to prove their manhood to each other in the face of Sasha’s ambiguity.
After Phil Robertson of the Duck
Dynasty reality TV show on A&E Network published statements in the January
2014 issue of GQ magazine, the outpouring of support from conservative,
evangelical groups suggests that the religious basis of such patriarchal
prejudice and fear is very much alive and well in certain circles here in the
United States (http://ipost.christianpost.com/news/12-quotes-phil-robertsons-homosexuality-comments-and-defenses-12701).
Dr. James Sanders, a retired
Hebrew scripture professor, best articulated the general consensus among
scholarship today that the Judeo-Christian sexual ethic as described in the
Biblical canon is based on the covenant made between God and Abraham in the twelfth
chapter of the book of Genesis (and repeated throughout Genesis). God promised
the family of Abraham would be “as numerous of the grains of sand on a beach ... as
there are stars in the sky” (Genesis 22:17). Procreation was the means of
extending the Abrahamic covenant. Childbearing, when fathered by Hebrew males,
was sanctioned and codified for multiple wives, slaves, concubines, widowed
sisters-in-law, and some cases of rape and war, as long as the children added
to the “chosen
people.”
This is why fornication is
considered an abomination throughout the canon. Fornication is the term used
for any sexual activity outside of the sanctioned kinds that can lead to
additional members of the Hebrew nation: such as masturbation, intercourse before
Hebrew marriage or outside of Hebrew marriage, bestiality, adultery, and of
course homosexuality.
In referring to I Corinthians
6:9-11, at least Phil Robertson was willing to cite the entire list of sexual
activities that will result in exclusion from inheriting the Kingdom of God (according
to Paul), not just those referring to same-gender sexual activity, although Mr.
Robertson did not mention gossiping – which can also exclude one from heaven, according to
Paul.
It would be surprising if the Duck
Dynasty star considers fornication to include masturbation, couples who sleep
together before their weddings, or seniors who cohabitate without marriage due
to financial complications. Today, forty percent of U.S. births occur out of
wedlock, according to the census. All of these activities are commonplace in
our society today but would technically be considered fornication. One wonders
if those conservative, evangelical groups supporting Phil Robertson’s hermeneutic spend the same
energy condemning other forms of fornication as they spend on homosexuality.
The Bible says a lot of things. It
is the interpreter who gives its verses and themes relevance by application. For
example, we no longer sanction slavery, considered business as usual (and
highly regulated) in the scriptures, both Old and New Testaments. We no longer
consider women as property of the male head of household, as described in both
Old and New Testaments. The Bible’s teachings of love and justice have liberated society
from applying some of its own most oppressive verses/themes as the context of
its application has changed.*
While the majority of
self-identified Christians would cite the Bible as the basis of their
condemnation of homosexuality, only the most literalistic would suggest that
male homosexuals should be put to death, as prescribed in Leviticus 18:22-23. While
those who resist same-gender marriage cite the divine aspect of procreation,
childbearing has never been a requirement for the state to issue a marriage
license to heterosexual couples.
Alan Turing, Sally Ride, and Mark
Bingham were exceptional human beings whose lives were defined after death by courage, sacrifice and intelligence.
During their lives, society, with the most capricious of rationales, defined
them by myth and fear.
Someday ... hopefully soon ... it
won’t take
heroics for members of the LGBTQ community to receive common acknowledgement of
their worth as human beings ... and they won’t be defined by anything but their character.
* That is why the Bible is called the
“living
word of God.” God
did not stop speaking to creation when the Biblical canon was finished in the fifth
century CE.