RB writes:
> If anything, some of us have expressed a dislike for uninformed claims
about biology, genetics, and "just so stories (as Carrol says), etc.
I know. I was unclear. What I was trying to express was that the issue had been pretty settled and that arguments from genetics were pretty weak. In trying to be funny I made a wrong choice of words.
> I happen to think it's a useless pursuit because we should be accepted
because we are, not because we "can't help it." Same thing with BD/SM.
It's acceptable because people do it, not because we find some biological
basis for it. That's the more radical approach, on my view.
And that is where I am now. I have abandoned proceduralism and believe that analysis of end results can offer the only hope of creating a just and fair society in all aspects.
> Like I said before, it just never makes sense to me.
That is where we came to. Just as feeling it is a choice does not make sense to me. I do not feel as if I have a choice to have sex with a woman.
> There's nothing about sex with one or the other that makes me feel more
natural or right -- the language that's often used in these discussions.
Because people truly feel that way. That is why I think using that language is effective. Most anti-queer heterosexuals feel that their heterosexuality is natural. Getting them to accept the idea that sexuality is constructed AND same-sex desire is okay is too much to hope for. Asserting that same-sex desire is natural is a strategic move since we are at least speaking to them in a way that matches their experience (and is also the experience of a certain number of queers). Eventually, we may move all of society to the idea that sexuality is a choice, but I am for taking a small victory and building upon it.
> What's curious, though, is that, as I recall, the people who are mostly on
your side in this (in terms of rejecting the heterosexism of thelist, of
rejecting its sometimes antisex attitudes, etc.) are also people who you're
categorizing has having an allergy?
Totally my bad. Allergy was the wrong word. I was trying to express that LBOsters had pretty much discredited the "genetics determines sex/gender ideas" when I tried to make the same argument in the past. The path was overgrown since we did not tread it anymore as it was shown that it led nowhere useful. I should have been more careful (and not respond to email at work).
Brian Dauth Queer Buddhist Resister