07 June 2006

Gay left

Did the Left 'normalise' homosexuality?
It was the 'left'--among them feminists, critical theorists, socialists and others-- that challenged the idea that core family values preserved the stability and roots of progressive society. In their opinion, marriage and family as an instiution maintained the status quo of male dominance and authority, which in turn supressed other (minority) groups and communities that did not conform to the 'norm'.

The Left's successes in legitimizing homosexuality set the pattern for subsequent attacks on the traditional family over the next quarter century, and it is therefore worthwhile to examine the logic at play. First, a traditional societal structure (e.g., the heterosexual family) is found defective because it is sexist, homophobic, racist, or in some way oppressive to a group favored by the Left, and an alternative (e.g., the homosexual family) is proposed. This alternative is touted as not only more just and equitable but also as beneficial, or at least not harmful, to society.
And the best the right/neo-cons/bible-huggers (think current US administration)
can come up with is that homosexuality (or for that matter equal rights, privileges etc) is "immoral", "unnatural", contrary to the "Divine Plan".


Fascinating! As a left-leaning liberal, I'm quiet happy to know (yet again!) that my political and cultural persuasions formed in the SOASian years have not been in vain : )

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