A Reader's Letter From The Jacarta Post on Homosexuality

Letter: Is homosexuality a threat?

The Jakarta Post   |  Sat, 04/10/2010 10:20 AM  |  Readers Forum

This is a comment on a letter titled “Against gay conference,” (The Jakarta Post, April 3).

What is a matter choice and what is a criminal offense? What is normal and what is immoral? We find that different people give different answers to these questions depending on the topic, time and location, their education, their own preferences and their political agenda.

Add to this religious institutions as well as secular organizations with a religious belief in their truth, and anything can lead to controversy. Some religious institutions believe it is their right to condemn other people’s (homo-) sexuality while they are far less strict in condemning and, in some cases, even tolerate acts of pedophilia.

Some societies allow the manufacture, trade and consumption of legal drugs like cigarettes, while they put small-time thugs in the possession of illegal drugs (like marijuana) in prison. Some societies brag about freedom and democracy while they enforce dress codes — with or without a head cover — on their citizens.

In these type of discussions it is interesting to ask which of the “evils” cause the most harm to others. Should that not be a guiding principle for both morals and laws?

I personally find homosexuality distasteful, but that is only my personal view. Others might think for example that oral sex is distasteful.

But how do people who openly admit that they are homosexuals harm others? Is homosexuality a threat to the human race? I don’t think so.

There are still enough candidates for human reproduction. Does homosexuality weaken a state or a nation?

Again there are ample historical examples where homosexuals were part of a strong society. The aversion towards homosexuality in early Judaism, which is at the roots of that in Christianity and Islam, has to be seen in its historical context where the survival of the tribe was primordial.

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is more a symbol of the general decadence of society due to corruption, greed, intolerance. When people are fanatically anti-gay they should first question their own decadence or even perhaps their own repressed homosexual feelings.

These discussions are not about religion, ethics, democracy or freedom.

The limits of freedom are of course subjective and depend on societies’ (changing) customs. Clashes between secular-inspired principles and theological-inspired principles are perhaps unavoidable in most, if not all, societies. But clearly many so-called moral questions are merely used as weapons by people wanting to exercise power over others.

Paolo L Scalpini
Toulouse

Adamfoxie decided to go to another Hemisphere to find out How some of their Citizens Publicly think of Homosexuality. The Jacarta Post is Published in Jacarta, The Capital and Largest City in Indonesia.