Fear, Itself

Today, May 17th, is the International Day Against Homophobia. It is a time for us to acknowledge that even as many groups in this world have thrown off the shackles of oppression, or fought to gain the rights and freedoms they so richly deserve, there is a group of individuals that still faces rampant discrimination, abuse, and bigotry: homosexuals, and along with them, their trans-gendered and bisexual compatriots. Lumped together, the LGBT community suffers under the crushing weight of an abject and unsupportable hatred that threatens to break humanity; today, let us acknowledge this and do something about it.

All over the world, homosexuality is the new leprosy, or perhaps it is better thought of as a state of being that has been continuously reviled since times ancient and vast. Something intrinsic to our makeup as a species has created a powerful revulsion to the idea of two people of the same gender type (or variously, a transformed gender type) having feelings of love for one another, as deep and as passionate as those of two people of opposite gender type. This infuriates some, who take to the airwaves, to the pulpit, to the blog, and rain down fiery invective on the very idea that two people can love each other, even where they are of the same gender. They attempt to take love, and turn it into some sort of law of the universe, that it can be only one way and not another, when that is far from the truth.

Our bodies are merely the shells we inhabit. Our consciousness, our being, our soul, if you will, can be considered part of the human frame, but only as far as the body is the vessel which supplies us with life, feeds us, nourishes our inner self. That the neuro-chemical stew that becomes a human being should bring about the ability of two people, no matter their body morphology, to have deeper feelings for one another, to find solace, comfort, and above all happiness, with each other, should come as no surprise. Evolution's engine, natural selection, attempts to broaden the field as far as it can for any species, to allow that species a better chance at survival. Same-sex love -- if we can be permitted to call it that for brevity, knowing it does not fully describe all possible permutations -- may or may not be an adaptive advantage, but we can never say for sure what is, and for humanity, which has advanced to the point of breaking free of the narrow tracks of natural selection, perhaps it serves as a safety valve for conditions we have yet to encounter.

We cannot so casually dismiss nor perfectly condemn homosexuality, though our ancestry would "make" us do so. We are the arbiters of what we will and will not believe, of what faith we will or will not support. It cannot be so cut-and-dried, for our history is filled with examples of where the obvious is not so, and the hidden more true. The mechanisms of the universe do not heed our desires and fears -- they simply march on, following the rules inexorably. That humanity has the capacity for reason and logic, seems one of the most powerful adaptations, for look at what it has brought us, in populating a world and hurling ourselves to the stars. Where we fail to observe reason and logic, it is because we have surrendered to our base instincts, which served us well long ago but now prove an impediment to our growth.

You may wish to hate the homosexual. The idea of homosexuality may make your skin crawl. Deep within, you may feel the flowing rivers of ire well up at the idea of homosexuality. It does not matter. Homosexuality is a fact. It exists. It will not go away, simply because you wish it to, or you deny it. The universe does not answer to us and our fear, nor does any god worth worshiping. In the end, should we be judged, we will be judged on what we do, what we say, and how we act. Look into the eyes of a gay person, and try to deny the spark of life yo see there. Look at them, and try to tell yourself they are not people, that no blood such as your courses through their veins. If you can do that, you are not fit to be a member of humanity, for any human being can recognize and love another human being, no matter who and no matter the form. That is the way.