Saturday, May 09, 2009

What Measure is a Non-Queer?

Via Alas, we get this defense of transgender people deceiving sexual partners about their status from "Polymorphous perversity" here and here.

What bothers me about these posts is not the legal argument, which seems to be reasonable and fairly well thought out, but the overall sense that such deception is not particularly morally wrong.

Specifically, PP says:

On the general principle that causing avoidable emotional distress to others is wrong, one could easily recognize a moral imperative to disclose some information to potential partners who might be upset by it. All the moreso in situations where the potential partner will be unwittingly involved in unethical behavior (as with a cheating spouse) or exposed to tangible risks (as with a sexually transmitted infection). While others might disagree, I am hesitant to recognize a strong imperative of this sort on the basis of membership in any socially marginalized group.

Translation: Transgendered people are victims, so that makes deceit for the purpose of eliciting sex OK.

The suggestion that transgender people who fail to disclose their gender history to sexual partners are themselves perpetrators of sexual violence owes more to horror of transgender people themselves, and of perceived "homosexual" acts, than to legal interpretation.

Translation: If you prefer sex with "cis-gendered" people (i.e. normal people, whose "gender identity" matches their physical sex) than with transgendered, or if you object to engaging in homosexual acts, you are simply a bigot and your preferences should not matter, and such deceit is okay, because it is in the service of overcoming bigotry.

Ampersand of Alas, showing his usual high level of concern about the rights of normal people, "highly recommends" this post.

Which just goes to show that the radical queer left (i.e. those who basically wish to tear down all sexual and gender norms) ultimately has little or no concern for the rights, sensibilities, and desires of anyone who is not part of their community and who does not share their views.

That is all.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

The Problem with Same-Sex "Marriage"

The problem really comes down to the fundamental issue fo what marriage is.

When you allow for same-sex "marriage" you are left with only two options:

(1) Have (at least) two different kinds of marriage, one for opposite-sex couples and one for same-sex couples. This is part of the reason why some people were pushing the marriage-look-alike alternative "civil unions." The problem is that our current ethos of equality will never allow this, as it is "separate" and therefore not "equal."

(2) Redefine marriage for everyone by turning it into a gender-neutral institution. The whole concept of marriage as it exists in our culture is based on the complementarity of the sexes. Such terms as "bride" "groom" "husband" and "wife" are explicitly based on heterosexual unions and do not really fit into same-sex unions. The only way to truly make the unions equal is to basically redefine the terms we use and the way that we think of heterosexual marriage in order to conform it to the same-gender model. Of course, this is what a lot of people want; traditional marriage is "sexist" or "heterosexist" to them, and terms such as "bride" and "groom" are "heteronormative," which is apparently supposed to be a bad thing.

That is ultimately what this story is about; the inexorable result of same-sex marriage is to define normal marriage down so as to make it equivalent to the ame-gender variety, and to take all of the particulars that make marriage what it is and to eliminate them. And they scoff at the idea that same-sex marriage will weaken marriage: "how," they ask, "will letting more people get married weaken marriage?" The answer, of course, is that it will weaken marriage by removing the particulars that make marriage marriage.

If I were to insist that Rush Limbaugh's (or Randall Terry's) ideas were to be labelled "feminist" or that Jesse Helms be placed in the camp of the "anti-racists," the leftists would have a field day. Obviously in that case they can see why increasing their nominal number weakens, and not strengthens, them. But in the end they do not care about marriage, or see it as a mere legal contract no different than, say a business partnership, so the idea that the same principle applies is completely foreign to them.

That is all.

Monday, May 04, 2009

Sorry About Lack of Posting

I've been working to re-build the Constitution Party of Maine, to find a new job before my current job expires (I'm being laid off later this year) and to get my apartment cleaned up a little. I'll try to post more when I am not so busy.

That is all.