Richard Mohr, Gay Basics (1989)

• Statistics on homosexuality (1994 NYT article "Gay Survey")
• 2.8% males and 1.4% females identified HS or BI
• In large cities, 10% of males HS acts in last year, 2.1% of women
• Entire lives 16% of men, 6.2 % of women
• Actual #s higher, as likely to under-report
• Note that these numbers are much lower than those Mohr cites
• He relies on the 1948 Kinsey studies:
  • 2 of 5 men gay, every second family has a gay person
• Discrimination against homosexuals
  • Attach at gay bar yesterday
• 1998 Matt Shepard case (gay Univ. of Wyoming student pistol whipped and tied to a fence post for 12 hours in near freezing weather)
• A 1998 study:
• 1/4 college students admitted to harassing gays
• Men: 18% physically assaulted or threatened gay or lesbian, 1/3 verbally harassed
• ½ said do it again, either not remorseful or believed nothing wrong; many saw it as self-defense (viewed gays as sexual predators)
• 2004 Kansas court: Longer sentences for gays who commit exact same crime as straights (17 years versus 13 months for older teen having gay sex with younger teen)
• Justification: reduce sexually transmitted diseases, encourage traditional mores, promote procreation and marriage
• 2004 Florida law banning gay people from adopting (thought it allows them to be foster parents and legal guardians)
• Mohr's evidence
• Summary of Study by National Gay Task Force
• 90% of gays & lesbians victimized on basis of their sexual orientation
• Over 1 in 5 gay men and 1/10 lesbians been punched, hit or kicked
• 1/4 of gays had objects thrown at them
• 1/3 been chased
• 1/3 sexually harassed
• 14% been spit on
• All simply because they were perceived as gay
• Queerbashing, police, juries, judges discount testimony of gays
• Discrimination in employment: Some Fed government agencies, some state licensing laws (doctors, lawyers, accounts, nurses)
• Discrimination in housing, immigration, naturalization, insurance, custody and adoption, zoning
• Gay sex illegal in nearly ½ states (until recently)
• Recent case in support of gay rights
• 2003 Lawrence vs Texas: U.S. Supreme court ruling against Texas law banning homosexual sodomy
• Until then 13 states, including S.C. had laws banning sodomy. 9 of those including S.C. banned it all including heterosexual couples.
• Nature and function of stereotypes
• Stereotype: A false/hasty generalization from a skewed sample
• E.g., Women, Blacks, Gays, Southerners
• Helps perpetuate a dominant ideology
• Ideology: a general system of beliefs and values that make up a social/political program
• A social construction that helps maintain society's conceptions of itself
• Keeps people in their places
• Method: Jokes, slang, name-calling
• Two gay stereotypes and the ideologies they protect from perceived threats
• (1) Gays have a mistaken gender identity
• Men who want to be/act like women, women who want to be/act like men
• Distinction between gender (masculine/feminine) & sex (male/female)
• Protects ideology that traditional (sexist) male/female gender roles are necessary
  • (E.g., Men should be dominant, protective, in control; women should be nurturing and supportive)
• Perceived threat is that if one is free to choose one's gender role, then men's dominance over women will be undermined
• (2) Gays as sex crazed maniacs who are family and civilization destroyers
• Protects innocence and dominance of traditional family relations from threat of critical scrutiny that exposes its problems of incest, child abuse, wife beating, divorce
• False stereotype: Am. Psychiatric Association 1973 being gay is not a mental illness
• Gays are less likely to be child molesters
• Unfairness of hasty generalization and standards of evidence (e.g., a "homosexual murder")
  
• Problems with some arguments given for why HS is immoral
• It is wrong to be gay because popular opinion, custom and society disapprove of it
• Assumes cultural relativism and this is problematic as Rachels has shown
• Being HS is wrong because Bible says it is wrong:
• Inconsistent and selective interpretation of Bible
• Violates separation of church/state: decisions of social policy shouldn't be based on religious grounds
• Must legislators and voters ignore their religiously based beliefs when making their decisions? Not plausible.
• HS is unnatural and therefore immoral
• For this argument to work need both:
  • Clear sense in which HS is unnatural, and
• Sense of unnatural that implies immorality
• Far from clear any of the following meet both conditions
• Unnatural = violates the descriptive laws of nature
• Unnatural = artificial, human made, different from natural state absent human interference
• Unnatural = uncommon, abnormal
• Unnatural = using something contrary to the purpose for which it was designed
• Unnatural = maladaptive, something for which evolution would not have selected
• Argument for why HS is not immoral:
• Sexual orientation is not a choice
• Sexual orientation is something over which people have virtually no control
• Gays don't choose to be gay
• If they did: it would be either an easy choice or serious life choice, but it is neither.
• Do heterosexuals choose their sexual preference? (No; then why think gays do?)
• It is wrong to hold people accountable (and make their life miserable) due to something beyond their control
• Ought implies can; if can't do x, it is not true that you ought to do it
• Therefore it is wrong to condemn Gays for being homosexual
  • Problems:
• Could condemn acts, not orientation: they can control their acts.
• What if mass murders were genetically programmed and couldn't control themselves, may we not protect ourselves from them? Assuming so, fact something is beyond a person's control does not imply that morally requires us to leave them alone.
  • Granted: If someone can't control an act they do, they are not responsible for doing it and thus punishment (conceived as giving to them what they deserve, i.e., retribution) is not appropriate. But restraining them to protect ourselves can be justified
• What would happen to society if homosexuality became socially acceptable?