Certainly plenty of big issues to write about this week such as the Clown President’s most recent attacks on one of the foundations of our democracy and traditional way of life: the free press. Yes, he apparently threatened to revoke the “license” of media outlets that don’t kowtow to his Orange Eminence in the manner of Fox “News” and such dishonest faux journalists as Sean Hannity. No one really knows what license the man had in mind but that’s beside the point. He often babbles nonsensically about things he clearly knows nothing about. The noteworthy bit is just his obvious hatred for the free press. But as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before with conservative nut jobs in the WH, dominating Congress, heading up all the Executive Branch agencies, and increasingly infiltrating the judiciary I could write something like that every week. On the other hand, since we still do have a free press in this country at least for now maybe I can take a week off now and then and let others cover the long sad decline and quite possibly eventual fall of our American way of life under the Republican / Russian Party. With that thought in mind I thought I’d set aside the news of the day and look to something a bit more lighthearted this week. In case you’re not up on this sort of the thing for the past twenty-nine years October 11 has apparently been considered by some National Coming Out Day in which gay people (aka queer people or to be perhaps overly precise and prosaic homosexuals) are meant to dramatically announce their sexual orientation to the world or some carefully selected bits of it anyway. I’ve been reading a lively debate about whether this practice is still necessary or even advisable. It got me thinking about sexual minorities again and then as fate would have it I bumped into an article that seemed relevant to the topic about a teacher in the UK who was banned from teaching after making some homophobic comments. Could be a coincidence I suppose but I choose to think the magical guardian fairies of Rainbow Land are trying to tell me to say a few words in defense of sexual minorities this week so let me just do that. I’ll get back to the Conservative Menace next time or maybe the time after that. No need to rush. It’s going to be with us for a while.
Let’s take the latter story first. Seems a science teacher in the UK named Joshua Onduso was recently banned from practicing his profession by some official organization known as the National College for Teaching and Leadership Panel. Apparently a student had asked him about gay people during class at his school (incidentally for five to nineteen year olds) and he had explained they “have a disease” and “have something wrong upstairs.” Later in the day he clarified his position by rephrasing his remarks to say gay people are “sick in the head.” When he was eventually confronted by the head teacher over his remarks he explained that his Christian beliefs meant he didn’t condone “what gay people do.” Now I know he might have been referring to any number of things such as holding hands or dancing or frequenting antique stores or drinking tea from fancy cups but I suspect he had something a bit more sexual in mind. He apparently never saw any problems at all with what he had told his class and was eventually helped to the exit. This is the sort of story that would have every red blooded conservative here in the USA up in arms. How dare the powers that be prevent this teacher from expressing his Christian beliefs! Oh the outrage! Political correctness run amok! Freedom of speech and freedom of religion both trampled under foot! As I’m sure my readers will have already surmised I’m entirely with the authorities on this one. Let’s break it down shall we?
While it’s perfectly fine for Mr. Onduso to follow his religious beliefs and not condone what gay people do it’s not perfectly fine for him to make up fake facts in a science class. No mainstream medical organization in any advanced country currently considers homosexuality a “disease” and mental health professionals in such countries stopped characterizing the phenomenon as a mental disorder many decades ago. When the student asked about the phenomenon in his science class one can only presume he or she was interested in the current science relating to the issue not Mr. Onduso’s personal code of ethics or his religious beliefs. Indeed, as a science teacher one might have expected Mr. Onduso to well understand the conceptual difference between the positive and normative, that is, fact and value, and possibly even use the occasion to explain the difference. There is no requirement at all for a science teacher delivering comments on homosexuality to “condone” it or to repudiate his religion’s ethical stance on it or anything of the sort. The only requirement is that a science teacher be prepared to tell the students about the science of the phenomenon. Of course it’s quite possible given his rather obvious biases he may have simply avoided the science and not known the answer. However, if he didn’t know the answer that would have been his best answer. I don’t know. Go look it up. It’s always preferable in an educational setting to just tell people one doesn’t know something than to make things up or provide disinformation. Anyway, one can well imagine the serious emotional damage this halfwit might have done to a young gay student wondering what current science has to say about his or her mental or physical condition only to be incorrectly informed he or she has a physical disease or a mental disorder. If on the other hand some of his students wanted to discuss the ethics of homosexuality then they should have been directed to an appropriate venue for that sort of discussion: a course in philosophy if they were interested in discussing it in a secular context, or the local seminary, church, mosque, temple, or what have you if they were of a more otherworldly temperament and wanted to discuss it in the context of mystical beings and ancient texts. Free speech was certainly never in any real danger. Rather there are proper contexts to talk about certain issues in certain ways and those contexts are especially important to observe and maintain in any institution that purports to involve education.
I know what you’re thinking. Funny story but how does it relate to National Coming Out Day? Well, the debate on this whole “coming out” issues seems to involve on the one hand the ostensible benefit to gay people of letting other people know they exist and are not unusually diseased or sick in the head and so on and on the other hand the potential personal cost to the person coming out and on a more general note the potentially unfortunate consequences of accepting the implicit assumption that one’s sexual orientation is anyone else’s business and that sexual minorities have a choice of either hiding themselves away in the proverbial closet or making an announcement to the world. Seems like a tough one to me because I see merit in both sides of the debate. I certainly remember the ugly and repressive olden days here in the USA during which one would never have willingly identified oneself as gay or even spoken up in defense of a gay person for fear of being branded gay oneself and mentally or emotionally or legally or even physically attacked so I can well understand the perceived need to avoid that trap. However, I don’t think any gay person in that sort of imminent danger should come out to anyone even now and I mean particularly young people who are not financially and emotionally secure and also people whose heads are wrapped up in the unfortunate belief systems of certain religious or cultural groups (or who have parents and friends with heads wrapped up in that sort of thing). As Mr. Onduso’s comments serve to remind us there is still a lot of ignorance and hatred directed at gay people most of it generated and nurtured by religious ideology. If one is not in a position to adequately defend oneself against this sort of persecution the more sensible approach would seem to me to remain mute or deny, deny, deny but of course express oneself as best as one is able in one’s private life. That’s how gay people survived in the bad old days wasn’t it? But did nothing really improve until gay people stopped doing that sort of thing? Or did the more general intellectual climate change in a way that made that sort of thing increasingly unnecessary? I don’t know. But anyway I think if there is a case to be made for gay people coming out I think the people in the best situation to do so are gay people with educated, open minded, secular friends and family who can reasonably be expected to be able to deal with the information in a reasonable way or strong secure mature people who are prepared to sever ties with the haters in their lives possibly forever.
But on the more general question of whether this sort of coming out is even necessary or advisable these days I just don’t know. I wonder if we’ve moved past this point at least in the USA. Everyone and certainly gay people would I’m sure prefer to live in a world in which one’s sexual orientation was like any other aspect of one’s personality. We don’t have days on which we’re meant to proclaim if we are or would like to be married, have or would like to have children, are more physically attracted to blonds or brunettes, are partial to the missionary position or doggy style, or anything else of a relational or sexual nature. If one wants to find out about such things for some reason such as perhaps one is looking for a suitable mate or to start a family then I suppose one can always ask someone about them. Might be a bit rude or obnoxious to ask random people simply to assuage one’s curiosity. Perhaps we’ve reached that stage for sexual orientation? Perhaps gay people can just live their lives not in the proverbial closet but freely and openly and yet also not feel a need to announce their presence to all and sundry? Perhaps we’ve reached a stage where young gay people can simply look for other young gay people if they want to form relationships with one another and if they’re unsure can simply ask one other people if they’d go for it? Or will the stultifying and oppressive weight of religious conformity and hatred toward sexual minorities descend the moment gay people put away their rainbow flags and stop making announcements and marching and just in general making a fuss? One would certainly hate to have to go through the whole thing again. A year ago in the USA I would have leaned toward supposing political gestures were no longer necessary in this country. Today I’m not so sure.
So what’s the answer? Sorry. No idea. Sometimes I just talk. I guess if you’re gay and you want to make a public gesture in support of equal rights for gay people and you’re in a position to handle any haters then knock yourself out. If you’re gay and you or your partner have relationships with people whose minds have been twisted into knots by religion or other unfortunate belief systems and you want to maintain those relationships as long as possible then maybe no need to rush to come out to anyone. Maybe just keep things on the down low. I can’t recommend a closet though. Too stuffy and confining. If people can’t be bothered to remain purposefully ignorant and meet you halfway and it’s either you or them then I suppose you should probably choose you. It’s always nice to be nice to other people but living solely to uphold the values of other people and not speaking up for your own rarely works out well in the long run. Other people come and go but you will always have you. Best wishes to you all my brothers and sisters. Happy Coming Out Day!
References
Thatcham teacher Joshua Onduso banned over homophobic comments. October 11, 2017. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-41581774.
