This gay vs anti-gay debate is starting to get ridiculous. The same “arguments” are being brought up over and over again.
A recent commentary made by Ms Yvonne Lee, a Law lecturer at NUS (ha!), in The Straits Times as linked from Yawning Bread here. I had to link from Yawning Bread because I couldn’t find a more neat and comprehensive reproduction of the original article. I suppose her views are, though very much flawed, typical. She did serve as legal counsel for Temasek Holdings and a professor at NUS. Singaporean universities are very apt at hiring people who have no references & no publications under their belt. Other than those published by the University Press of course. Boo. Those who do actually do research have moved elsewhere..
Her views are really extremely typical of the run of the mill arguments that anti-gays put across. And since there is a multitude of links tracked by tomorrow.sg, I suppose its pretty pointless for me to argue against HER points. So i’m going in generals.
This post is the LAST time I’m going to make my stand on homosexuality & its criminalising. As well as the religion / moral POV that anti-gays take.
All thanks to MM Lee’s fleeting mention that he thinks the authorities must take a “pragmatic approach” to what he sees as an “inevitable force of time & circumstances”. Source from Asiaone news. He also mentions that “Singapore should not actively pursue homosexuals who engage in sex.” There is a sudden unwelcome increase in unwanted attention to the homosexual community in Singapore.
For so many decades, homosexuals have lived in peace and harmony with the rest of the community every where in the world, Singapore included. So why is the spotlight on them right now? Before this incident, I am almost 100% sure that nobody even knew of the existence of the Penal Code section 377A.
The most common arguments against legalising homosexual activities are more often than not, on moral & religious grounds. Religion is inherently good and teaches their believers to serve the less fortunate and champions world peace (sic!) It is the people who thwart religion and make it into something that champions what they themselves believe in and want to achieve, some evil plan that they conceive. God is always the black sheep that people blame for their misguided deeds.
Which is why using religion as an argument for being AGAINST someone is plain bullshit in my opinion. B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T. Stop defacing the sanctity of God (in general terms) and all that He stands for. Stop using Him as a mask that you cowardly hide behind in your futile and disgusting way of defending your un-religious views.
Did religion teach you to be intolerant of those who are different from you? I seriously doubt that. Then why are you being intolerant? Isn’t that against your faith? Isn’t that against all that God has taught you to be? Then on what grounds can you stand up and tell dissenting people that they are ‘immoral’, and what they are doing is ‘against the nature of mankind’.
Homosexuality is present in mankind since the Greeks and the Samurais were born. Japanese history tells us that Samurais have sex with women and marry them for the sole purpose of procreation and letting the blood line continue. Their real love comes from the brotherhood. It is a culture for seasoned samurais and novice samurais to have sex and love each other. An article about the history of samurais confirms this. Homosexuality wasn’t that deviant in those days, in those cultures. Asian for that matter. In fact it was a necessity for the Samurais, who were the highest class of beings in Japan, second only to the ruler.
So if it was natural then, how does it not be natural now? Did the definition of natural change over time? Has God somehow altered the natural state of things in this world somehow?
On the same thread of natural, it is also argued that homosexuality goes against the institution of marriage, which is reserved for one man & one woman. Who said it? Who decreed that marriage is only for the man-woman combination? Yes, God created Adam & Eve and not Adam-Adam or Eve-Eve. But they had to procreate so by fact of nature, only a sperm & an egg can fuse to create a baby. They had nobody else anyway, how are they to know if they actually love the opposite gender? They might have been gay/lesbian/bi-sexual for all we know.
Marriage is a commitment of two people who are in love and are willing and committed to spend the rest of their lives together, happily ever after (ok, this is cliche). If two people of the same gender can do that, what right do we have to go against it?
Procreation. Many heterosexuals are not giving birth right now. So I will be right to say, from the “homosexuals cannot procreate, therefore population growth will decline” POV, that we should criminalise the following:
– Infertile men / women
– Heterosexuals who chose not to have a child
– Heterosexuals who are too poor to afford having a child
Why are we not doing so then?
Another popular argument is that gays are more promiscuous and thus they are the reason why there are more AIDS cases. Oh. My. God. How imbecile. It’s akin to saying we have to criminalise all SARS carriers, all Hep B carriers, all Bird Flu carriers etc etc.. Our jails will be extremely over-crowded. More jails need to be built. Are these people willing to say give up their houses to make way for more new jails?
These people argue that it is intrinsic that heterosexuals are more committed to relationships, especially women. Right. Maybe I should put out some stats for the number of abortions being carried out, the number of single moms there are.. Since gays & lesbians can’t procreate, these instances must have been committed by heterosexuals right? There goes the commitment theory. Flying out of the window.
And that their sexual activities are more prone to AIDS? Wherever did you guys get that from?? So we should BAN all sex activities then? Nobody should have sex at all. It harms others. Oh and those who make such propositions might have never heard of the term ‘oral sex’ or ‘mutual masturbation’. I doubt either of these will cause AIDS. Maybe we should ban them as well. No masturbating and no oral sex. Na-dah.
Oh that note, maybe we should criminalise sneezing, coughing, spitting, yawning (who knows what air-borne germs might come out of the person’s mouth). We should all wear a spacesuit out. Because, everything you touch can be a breeding ground for germs. We should all eat space food too!
We have intelligent people living in this country.
I am so proud.
