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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!kpno!ut-sally!riddle
From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: On homosexuality as a "survival trait"
Message-ID: <221@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Sep-83 17:16:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.221
Posted: Mon Sep  5 17:16:40 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Sep-83 01:27:34 EDT
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 38


     As if the net.singles discussion of homosexuality weren't already
getting a bit old, I thought I'd put some more twigs and newsprint into
the fire...

     The suggestion has been made that homosexuality is not only "natural"
(whatever that means), but is a survival trait, the evidence being a
supposed disproportionately high contribution on the part of gays to the
advancement of civilization in general and the arts in particular.  Assum-
ing for a moment that this is true (a proposition I'm not about to either
attack or defend), there is a much more sensible explanation of the phe-
nomenon than that gays don't "have to expend their energy raising children."

     The explanation is simple:  gays grow up at odds with society, finding
within themselves values and feelings which society as a whole labels as
deviant.  They start from an early age to question the society around them,
to think about things rather than to blindly accept them, and to rebel,
either overtly or in the closet.  Out of this tension comes creativity;
out of this conflict comes innovation.

     The phenomenon, if true at all, is actually a rather common one: how
often has it been said that madness and genius are closely related?  How
many social misfits of all kinds have created things that a normal member
of the herd would never stumble across?  The argument may even fit border
groups within society as well as individuals:  what about the (again, sup-
posed) greater contributions of Jews to science and the arts, for instance?

     The point is that perhaps we should be  g r a t e f u l  for deviance
(and not just the sexual kind), rather than wishing we could stamp it out.

     (Not that I'd be very pleased to see anybody using this sort of argu-
ment to suddenly become "tolerant" of gays -- the real reason should be
plain old human decency.)

                                    -- Prentiss Riddle
                                       riddle@ut-sally.UUCP
                                       riddle@ut-sally.ARPA