Cloning Gays Is Totally Out Of The Question

It’s nice to know (for me, at least) that if I do take a week off, there will be plenty of material waiting for me when I return. But more on this later; new material has simply appeared, like magic, in today’s Inquirer. I speak, of course, of Faye Flam’s “Carnal Knowledge” column.

Today’s piece is about gays, and why people hate them. The headline is pretty clear: “What fuels the hatred of homosexuality?” What makes the column more interesting than usual: There’s no mention of the Bible at all. It’s like writing a column about the cause of the American Civil War and not mentioning slavery.

Flam instead focuses on the “ick factor” of (for the most part) straight men, who abhor the idea of two men kissing or assfucking or whatever. This makes sense, of course; to be honest, I feel men are so disgusting I can’t even understand how straight women find men attractive. (I suppose if they didn’t it would be the end of the species; mankind is saved because not everyone is as neurotic as I am.) “Isn’t it kind of babyish to declare gays immoral because you think their sex lives are icky?” Flam writes. Of course, what if your all-knowing and all-powerful god decides two men shouldn’t hook up? Hey, I don’t get it either, but who are we to doubt omniscience?

Okay, so lotsa men don’t like gays (and, therefore, gay marriage) because they feel it’s icky. After finally mentioning religious teachings, Flam also cites a study by Leon Kass, who worked with President Bush: “Kass’ essay focused not on gay marriage, but on human cloning, which, he wrote, makes us uneasy for a reason.” This is like citing an essay on the Panic of 1837 in my hypothetical Civil War column.

But, really, it all comes down to one thing: We (not me, but the royal “American”) hate gays because we hate smokers. And, ah, carnivores.

Rozin suggests that liberals tend to go after smokers partly for the same reason. It’s far from a perfect analogy, and I’m not really bothered by smokers. To me, slaughterhouses are disgusting and cast doubt on the morality of buying supermarket steak (although not enough to stop me from eating a hamburger at a barbecue).

And what do they call cigarettes in England? I rest my case.

Carnal Knowledge | What fuels the hatred of homosexuality? [Inquirer]