Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site shark.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!tektronix!orca!shark!hutch From: hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: Flame: Sargent's theory of homosexuality Message-ID: <1151@shark.UUCP> Date: Thu, 15-Nov-84 14:17:04 EST Article-I.D.: shark.1151 Posted: Thu Nov 15 14:17:04 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 17-Nov-84 02:57:36 EST References: <1132@bbncca.ARPA> Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR Lines: 42 | > Letter from Jeff Sargent in which he describes his own experiences | > with homosexual feelings and how he resolved this... | | Lissen, Sargent, we had this discussion a loong time ago, in a newsgroup | far far away (I think it was net.singles.) | | STOP SUPERIMPOSING YOUR OWN NEUROSES ON GAY PEOPLE, OK? Oh, come ON, Steve! Gays are no more NOR LESS human than anyone else and will have just as many (or as few) neuroses as anyone else! One would think that you of all people would not discriminate in this fashion. Have a little understanding! So Jeff described what gave rise to HIS feelings. Does it make them less valid because he didn't choose a non-hetero sexual orientation? And his religious basis for doing this is just as valid as any religious basis for celibacy, for having children, for not having children... | It is bad enough that we have to suffer through his ruminations on | childhood, divorce and his own sexual orientation, given that he | dismisses serious counseling as a valid option. But it is outrageous | that he should take these peculiar, private explanations for his | neuroses and paint gay people with the same color. | | DON'T TRY TO MAKE STATEMENTS ABOUT WHAT "GAY PEOPLE" ARE LIKE, GIVEN | YOUR ADMITTED LACK OF EXPERTISE IN THE AREA. It sure didn't look to me like he was "painting gay people". It looked like he might have been trying to understand them. Or to help other heteros understand them. What's outrageous about that? Admittedly it is hard for a person to truly experience a lifestyle (or a race, or a gender) with the attendant joys, pains, and drawbacks. I certainly hope you don't intend to say that we can't try to understand it though. If that is the case then you have defeated yourself at the outset. The real presumption here is that you seem to claim that no heterosexual is allowed to even think about their own homosexual feelings or phobias. And then of course there's your judgement that Jeff must undergo serious counseling. THAT is presumption. It's his choice, NOT yours. Hutch