Saturday, 27 August 2016

Homosexuality And Conservatism

Once upon a time it was possible for a Heterosexual person to live without thinking about Homosexuality. To most people Homosexuals were as mythical as unicorns and their attitudes to both were quite similar. Some people love unicorns, some people like unicorns, some people are interested in unicorns, most people couldn't care less about unicorns. But today we are forced to notice.

Historically Homosexuality was a crime and a sin, but in reality it was ignored as much as possible. Because sex was private, it was not a subject for public discussion. The attitude was remarkably well spread across peoples, cultures, religions and time and it was that Heterosexual people simply pretended that Homosexuality didn't exist and in return Homosexuals pretended they didn't exist. To put it another way, everyone used discretion. Of course everyone knew it did but unless it was forced into public view it remained private, discrete.

Now whenever this idea is said in public someone will invariably ask about Oscar Wilde, it's best to go to his Wikipedia page and read it there under the subheading "Trials". In short he wasn't discrete and he paid the price, not for his Homosexuality but for his pride.

But the live and let live attitude did not survive the Twentieth Century and war was the reason. The two World Wars and the Cold War would put paid to the idea that what was private should stay private. Because during these times of heightened tensions much more attention was paid to anything that was out of the ordinary. The Intelligence Services and the Police were on the look out for spies, saboteurs and subversives. And while Homosexuals were no more likely to be any of those things than anyone else it did mean that the things they did that were "out of the ordinary" were noticed. In previous times they would have been forgotten, but now they might have National Security implications so instead of being ignored they were noted down and compiled. Now that National Security might be involved Homosexuality was no longer able to pretend it didn't exist. It was very unfair as Homosexuals had done nothing to provoke this interest, they were simply caught in the crossfire.

Added to this was another game changer, the Sexual Revolution. When people think of the Sexual Revolution they think of the 1960's but in reality it started way before that, remember Playboy was started in 1953. The most important change was that sex was no longer regarded as private. it could and should be talked about and put on display. It was a complete inversion of what had gone on before. Homosexuals were as much a part of that as the rest of Western society. From this point on there was no way of hiding the fact that Homosexuality existed.

And just as Feminism pushed and pushed and demanded things both reasonable and unreasonable so did the Homosexual lobby. When people complained that things were going too far they were also told that these things didn't affect them. And if they continued to complain that they were bigots. We were told that Homosexuals were just like us. So Homosexuality was legalized and now in most Western countries they can adopt children, marry and change genders. And if you have a problem with any or all of that then you are regarded as the problem.

Conservatives however have opposed all of these things and we continue to do so. We do not want pride marches or Mardi Gras, we do not want public nudity, simulated sex acts and sex toys on display. Dignity should be important. We do not want children to be brought up without a Mother or a Father, which is why we are critical of single parenthood. That is why we oppose Homosexuals adopting children. Marriage is about Family, about a man and a women creating the future, it is not primarily about love, desire or personal fulfillment, all of that is great but they are not the reasons we support Marriage or the Family. That is why we oppose Homosexual Marriage.

Does anyone really still believe that non of these things will affect us? No that horse bolted quite some time ago.

So what do Conservatives want?

What we want is discretion, from both Homosexuals and Heterosexuals. I never want to know about your sex life, nor do I need too. It really shouldn't be that much to ask, but it seems it is. I want society to work and I want to stop feeling like the last sane man in the asylum. But maybe that is too much to ask. What I want is the Balanced Society, a society were we all have our place, a place with discretion.

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    That's a very good point.


    One of the problems with wars, whether they're hot or cold, is that you always seem to end up with the government having a bit more power and intruding a bit more into your life. And the big problem is that once governments gain powers they never (voluntarily) give them up. Even when the war is supposedly fought for freedom you always end up with just a little less freedom than you had before.

  2. Added to this was another game changer, the Sexual Revolution.

    One of life's little ironies is that the Sexual Revolution was supposed to make us more free, but it made us less free. Once sex becomes public there's more pressure to conform to public sexual mores.

    A century ago someone who remained unmarried attracted no attention whatsoever. It was nobody else's business. Today if you remain single you're assumed to be homosexual in which case you're put under pressure to "come out" publicly, or you're assumed to be sexually repressed and therefore in need of medical treatment.

  3. Extreme cases make for bad law and make for bad policy too. The homosexual population is at the most about 1 % of society. To change around your entire system to accommodate a small number of persons is not a good idea.