Question Is there any good argument to support the claim that homosexuality is a perfectly valid lifestyle?

Accepted:
September 15, 2009

Comments

I'd suggest reflecting on a different question: is there any good argument to support the claim that it isn't? I ask this because for my own part, I can't think of one. Further, I don't think this is just a failure of imagination on my part.

When I think about the same-sex couples I know, the fact that both partners are men or both are women fades into the background pretty quickly. I've known dysfunctional same-sex couples, and dysfunctional opposite-sex couples. I've seen loving, sustaining, healthy same-sex relationships, and loving, sustaining, healthy opposite-sex relationships. Some homosexual people are abusive; so are some heterosexual people. Some heterosexual people are just the sort of people you'd be glad to see your own child in a relationship with. And so are some homosexual people.

Now it's true: homosexual sex isn't procreative. Neither is sex with birth control. Nor is celibacy. It's also true: if everyone were homosexual, the survival of the species would be a lot more complicated. But that's also true if everyone were celibate. Or used birth control consistently. Homosexuality is not "contagious." Even if there is some sense in which homosexuality is unnatural, there's also a sense in which celibacy is unnatural -- or for that matter, in which thinking philosophically is unnatural. And on it goes.

So it seems to me that the burden of proof is on the other side. What serious reason is there to think that there's something wrong with homosexual relationships? For the life of me, I can't think of any.

Question Is there any good argument to support the claim that homosexuality is a perfectly valid lifestyle? Accepted:September 15, 2009

Question Is there any good argument to support the claim that homosexuality is a perfectly valid lifestyle?

Accepted:
September 15, 2009