Topics Sex

Question Why is it that homosexuality is not accepted in general? In society there is only the role model of man and woman to build a family and that the family is the foundation of the society. But has this necessarily to be so? Is there an ethical or philosophical argument to not accept homosexuality?

Accepted:
May 31, 2006

Comments

See questions 1223 and 1221 for some relevant reflections. Your question is slightly different, perhaps, but I'm not sure. The other questions largely concern same-sex relationships, whereas you talk of "homosexuality", which is either a form of behavior---having sex with someone of the same gender---or a "sexual orientation"---being inclined to be sexually attracted to members of one's own gender. These are very different from anything involving relationships, even (for lack of a better word) "romantic" ones, which may or may not involve sex and do not, in any event, need to be defined by it. For this reason, I'd much prefer to speak of people who are homoamorous: people who are inclined to develop feelings of romantic love towards members of their own gender and, as a result, inclined to become involved in romantic relationships with people of their own gender.

Of course, now that we've distinguished the sexual question from the question of relationships, we can see clearly that, if you're opposed to gay sex, you should be in favor of gay marriage. Nothing does away with sex quite the way marriage does.

Yes, that's a joke. An old one.

Yes, it's a joke, and in various versions a good one. (We could, in the manner of the Aristocrats, tell it a hundred different ways. Let me know if you want to hear the version that involves President Coolidge -- or go to http://fs.uno.edu/asoble/pages/bermant.htm.) But even though a joke, it contains much truth; and jokes can be turned into philosophical arguments or positions. (See, for example, how the content or point of jokes about masturbation have been taken damn seriously by philosophers and theologians: "Masturbation," an entry in my encyclopedia Sex from Plato to Paglia.) As a matter of fact, at least one philosopher of sex [moi] has argued (or only asserted, perhaps) that gays are foolish to press for the right to marry -- they are full of romantic notions about marriage, are not sensitive enough to what a killer institution it is. (Sexual Investigations, near the end of Chapter 2.) You make your bed hastily, and then suffocate in it.