MICROSCOPES

My homosexual brothers and sisters have been scrutinized by biological and social sciences for decades. Our networking habits, our sexual habits and our thought patterns have been dissected, exposed and widely discussed in predominantly heterosexual media. And, after being looked at under various microscopes, we have been electro-shocked, castrated, lobotomized and executed. During the rising liberation movement (mid 1970s - early 1980s), a mere 15 years, heterosexual media were fascinated and horrified by gay/lesbian activism. The rise of San Francisco as a "gay Mecca", a particularly heinous analogy in light of the current rise in homophobic Islam, was a staple in heterosexual press reports which varied from admiration to casting the city as a hybrid of Sodom and Gomorrah.

It is impossible for me, as a gay man of 65, not to look at the following decades with the same skeptical analysis applied to my brothers and sisters for so long. For example, I do not think that the AIDS epidemic, which crushed the ascendancy of Gay Liberation after its short rise, was an accident. I do not think that the assassinations of Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone in San Francisco were the random acts of one lunatic. I do not think that the steering of Gay Liberation toward heterosexual models of traditional marriage and military service was solely the idea of gay/lesbian activists. I suspect that some of The West's hesitancy to crush fundamentalist Islam and Judaism in the Middle East is rooted in homophobia and misogyny. I observe that heterosexuals in power, who often decry the concept of 'social engineering', are masters of it when it is applied to homosexuals.

I have looked at heterosexuals through my own microscope over my six decades of conscious observations. Some heterosexuals become incensed when I share those observations publicly!

For example, heterosexuals, male and female, are the ultimate sexual hypocrites. Young heterosexuals I have encountered are just as promiscuous as gay men and lesbians, if not more so. They do have more opportunity, since they are the vast majority. All sexually oriented institutions market to them as vigorously as they market to gay men and more vigorously than they market to lesbians. Yet, heterosexuals in general venerate monogamy publicly, often in conjunction with the sanctity of sexual reproduction. How absurd is this? The divorce rate in the U.S., for example, is now around 50%. Is that an advertisement for heterosexual monogamy? No. Is it evidence that heterosexuals are so committed to the welfare of their progeny that they will stick together in adversity? No.

Heterosexual women, even conservative heterosexual women, are attracted to the company of gay men. Heterosexual men, even conservative heterosexual men, are famously fascinated and sexually aroused by lesbian sexuality. The majority of heterosexuals in the U.S. approve of gay marriage. Yet, what would be the percentage of heterosexual parents who would be eager to have a gay son or lesbian daughter? I could find no statistics on this, but I speculate the real number would be a single digit, if that. In other words, "I like gay/lesbian people, but I wouldn't want to reproduce one."

Heterosexuals in racial/ethnic minorities in the U.S. are the most homophobic. "It's a lifestyle choice." That is their mantra, whether it be uttered in Chinese, Spanish or Ebonics. Gay/Lesbian people in these communities/families in the U.S. suffer horrors similar to the horrors suffered by gay/lesbian people in Central America, Africa, China, and the Middle East. Homophobia doesn't respect borders either. Yet, this is never addressed by mainstream heterosexual media. A large percentage of the homeless adolescents in American cities are gay/lesbian youth, between 20-40% according to varied estimates. In other words, between two and four times the gay/lesbian presence in the general population by conservative estimates. A majority of these homeless teens are from minority communities.  If monogamy and good parenting are such precious heterosexual ideals, how could this happen?

Reproductive rights are a constant topic among heterosexual women in the West. This is so ingrained in the general culture, that out gay men and lesbians, indoctrinated into heterosexual models, are now reproducing through natural and unnatural methods. The children born into these situations are wanted, the products of intentional pregnancies. But, in the U.S., about 50% of all pregnancies, vastly heterosexual,  are still unintentional. This begs the questions, "What about the rights of those reproduced unintentionally?"

The most vehement persecutors of homosexual men and women are religious heterosexuals of all faiths. Virulent hate speech against homosexuals spews forth in churches, mosques and synagogues around the planet every single day. This is considered freedom of religious belief. However, the same rhetoric in quality, if preached against Muslims, Blacks or Jews in many developed countries, would get the attention of security services or secret police. No such governmental vigilance against homophobic speech occurs. Freedom of bigoted, heterosexually oriented religion trumps the poisonous effects of this speech on the minds of children who are subjected to it. 

I have had no choice but to assimilate into heterosexual culture. Heterosexuals control government, banking, military, most retail venues, most social venues, etc.. In my youth, this assimilation was absolutely necessary to avoid exile and abuse. I learned secrecy by default out of fear for my physical survival. When I threw off that cloak of secrecy at the age of 20, my heterosexual family first tried to bully me back into secrecy and then rejected me outright when I refused. My friends from college told me to never contact them again. I was homeless and friendless. And society was perfectly OK with that, because I was "one of those". However, when I later learned that there was a homosexual tradition/culture which extended back throughout human history, I realized I was indeed one of those. I have been dissected and examined inside and out. I have emerged with self respect. I can stand alone if I must. And, most importantly, I have known real love, real honesty, real compassion, not just hollow conformity.