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“A characteristic of our present chaos is the dramatic migration of tribes. They are on the move from east to west, from south to north. Liberal tradition requires that borders must always be open to those in search of safety or even the pursuit of happiness. But now with so many millions of people on the move, even the great-hearted are becoming edgy. Norway is large enough and empty enough to take in 40 to 50 million homeless Bengalis. If the Norwegians say that, all in all, they would rather not take them in, is this to be considered racism? I think not. It is simply self-preservation, the first law of species."
Gore Vidal, American novelist, aphorist and liberal Democrat in 2000. The full piece is here.
But Gore Vidal was a homosexual and therefore a sinner and a defective human being. Do his views count?
ReplyDeleteWe are all sinners, even those of us who like girls. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. It is not a sin to be homosexual, just so you know.
DeleteIt is not a sin to be homosexual, just so you know.
DeleteThere's no such thing as a homosexual. There are homosexual acts, which are sins (and also self-destructive and unnatural so they're sins against nature as well as God). Homosexuality is like adultery, promiscuity and other assorted moral crimes. There's no such thing as someone who is born an adulterer.
I have a sneaking suspicion Vidal may have engaged in homosexual acts.
That of course doesn't mean that his opinions on everything else are wrong.
The Catholic Church condemns sodomy as an unnatural mortal sin. But people are homosexual because of their early childhoods. It is not (usually) something they choose. I don't think peoples' lives tell us whether their opinions are necessarily wrong. Not even if they wore blackface. But Anonymous was being sarcastic, of course.
DeleteHow old fashioned my last comment makes me sound and platitudinous. Matthew Parris recently had an interesting take.
Delete"For every ‘bisexual’ man who’s actually gay but reluctant to say so, there’s a straight man who’s actually bisexual. And there are plenty of ‘gay’ men who know that, in a different life, they could reasonably contentedly be straight. Indeed, hordes are: happy in real marriages with wives and children. And I’ve noticed in myself and heard reported from others how the shapes of our desires can shift with the years.
In what passes for the gay ‘community’, there’s something of a taboo about admitting, even to ourselves, that quite a few of us (not me) could, with a little coaxing and self-discipline, be ‘straight’. Straight men are equally reluctant to admit the converse. There exist strong reasons for this taboo among gays: first, ‘we can’t help it’ was absolutely central to our early pitch for equality, and we needed to believe it. Secondly, if sexuality really is modifiable for some, how long before someone suggests cognitive behavioural therapy minus (or even plus) the Hallelujahs?"
I have no idea whether he is right but I disagree with the idea that most heterosexual men are partly homosexual and everything is 'gender fluid' (dread words, as Wallace Arnold would say).
Just to be married to another homosexual ;)
ReplyDeleteIt is not a sin for homosexuals to marry any more than for anyone else and they have done so throughout history, to members of the opposite sex.
ReplyDeleteSir Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville West, for example, were two homosexuals who were happily married, although their marriage was not one of which the church would approve.
ReplyDeleteYou knew what I meant.
ReplyDeleteAh Caroline so you are Anon?
DeleteI am thinking of requiring a gmail address for people who comment on my blog - would that incommode you?
DeleteWikipedia is so useful.
ReplyDeleteThey had two distinguished sons, loved each other, restored Sissinghurst and created its famous garden. This is better than sterility. They enjoyed very snobbish and racist conversations and Nicolson was one of the most ardent anti appeasers. A great writer too.
ReplyDelete