SWOPblogger

The primary thing he is being ridiculed for is his statement that “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.”

He’s being pilloried throughout the media for this statement…it would seem that in this country we find almost universally his statement to be, well, ludicrous. As in: "of course, there are gays in his country. It’s a fact that homosexuality exists everywhere."

But, wait, let’s back up for a minute.

Something doesn’t quite seem right here. It’s in these same media outlets that you hear the cries of outrage against the idea of gay marriage, claims that homosexuality is a choice not a natural state, that, indeed, it’s a sin against god. And, this viewpoint drives broad opposition to gay marriage among our politicians and the general public.

If the majority of the American public actually believed that homosexuality was a choice made against God, though, wouldn’t Ahmadinejad’s claim be perfectly legitimate to the majority of us? Indeed, if homosexuality is a choice, couldn’t we imagine a society that has a culture in which that choice is by and large not made? Actually, wouldn’t this aspect of Iranian culture seem superior to our own? In this case, his comment wouldn't be laughable, right?

But in reality, the majority of the American population thinks homosexuality is not a choice, and for this reason Ahmadinejad's assertion is treated with the derision it deserves.

It would then follow, if we're fair, that the majority of us (which in this country overwhelmingly believes in God) don't think that homosexuality goes against God’s will, because God doesn't make mistakes, right? And if this is true, then we would have to agree that marriage between homosexuals is legitimate in the eyes of God. It should then follow that in this country our legal system discriminates against an entire class of people based on their genetic make-up, in our refusal to afford them all the social, economic and (dare I say it) emotional benefits of marriage.

...of course, I don't believe the opposition to gay marriage here has anything to do with God, for most people anyway. God is just used as a cover (nothing new here) to promote a perspective that does not want to allow more liberatory concepts of gender to permeate our society.

Labels: ahmadinejad, gay marriage, gender, homosexuality

# posted by marjorie @ 10:07 AM