Homosexuality

I thought I should write a few thoughts on the subject, since the topic has come up in class readings and in some recent conversations.

During a talk with a gay friend, he convinced me that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is rather stupid. My reasons for opposing the policy are probably different than his, though. I now oppose it because it doesn't make sense for me to label people "homosexual" any more than it does to label them "heterosexual." No, this isn't some deconstructionist line of thinking. It just seems to make sense that sexual impulses and orientations are nothing more than passions and impulses. They don't define people. It makes more sense, say, to describe one man as a married father of four and another as a monk than to describe both as heterosexual. Sure, in some trivial sense both are heterosexual in that both desire women. But one has responsibly acted upon his impulses by channeling them into the good of family life, while the other has chosen to heed a different calling.

If a man in the military confesses to having homosexual inclinations, he shouldn't be punished for it. He deserve the same prayer and love that, say, an unmarried man who lusts after women deserves. Both take a broadly defined good (physical union with another person) and pervert it, each in their own way. Both need to pray and fast and seek true repentance, and those around them should be participants in that process. Unfortunately, both homosexuals and those who would have sex out of wedlock both increasingly have the mainstream culture on their side, which makes such repentance more difficult than it should be.

That said, if a man is caught engaging in homosexual acts while in the military, he should be kicked out. Similarly, an unmarried man caught engaging in sex acts with a woman while in the military should be kicked out. I wasn't aware that people in the service actually date. Is it just me, or is that wholly inappropriate? If one of the perks of joining the Army was to pick up chicks, you need to go home. Inter-service fraternizing is just not cool. The services should also stop turning a blind eye to prostitution, which I've heard is quite a problem on foreign bases.

As a society, we can't let go of the proposition that homosexual acts are sinful. However, we should tone down the irrational gay-bashing. Culture necessarily plays a role in our thinking, but we should temper that with reason.

Homosexual acts are sinful to the same extent, and for the same reasons, that divorce and contraception (yes, I think I've changed my mind over the past year or so) and other such acts are sinful. I concede that I have an aesthetic revulsion to homosexuality, which is largely cultural. I hope, however, that that arational feeling has not excessively guided my thinking, or colored my rhetoric, when writing about homosexuality on these pages in the past. If it has, I sincerely apologize.

The beam in one's own eye can often skew one's perception. I have plenty of my own work to do.