Reproduction Is The issue, Isn’t It?
Growing up in a multicultural, dual-faith household has allowed me to appreciate the vibrant and colorful complexities inherent in familial diversity. However, these complexities have had both a positive and negative effect on my own personal growth and maturation. As an open lesbian, I have been told every “issue” with my “lifestyle.” Not only from a cultural view but from the severe moral lens of religiosity as well. Reflecting on all the conversations I’ve had with family, friends, and enemies, I sometimes wonder why it consistently comes down to the same tired argument: Homosexuality is a “sin” against God’s will and an “affront” to nature. It is always someone's “merciful” and “loving” god that seems to hate me and offer no mercy to my soul.
If we are honest, we can admit that no one actually follows their religious texts down to the letter. Not only would this be utterly incompatible with most modern lifestyles, but also because many so-called people of faith don't even know what their own sacred text actually says.
The majority of acolytes read translations of their ancient religious tomes and take them mostly at face value because the majority of “truisms” these translations proclaim actually work pretty well for the average “normie.” I wonder, though, why is it that the “sin of homosexuality” is so often the main focus when it comes to conversations about religion? As I've mentioned, I come from a home where not one but two religions were shoved down my throat. And you know what? I couldn't tell you a single time where either of my parents showed me a verse from these books that was helpful in any way to my life. They and their books were not supportive, merciful, or non-judgmental the way a devout religious person “should” be. They did, however, show me that being a lesbian was a sin against God and punishable by eternity in hell. A nice positive message. And they did shun me and treat me like an animal, all in the name of their merciful and loving god.
I find it fascinating that the people who are most unyielding and loud when proclaiming their anti-gay life manuals are also the ones who have the most to say about the “true meaning” of the words of their religious books. However, they only have something loud to say when it'sabout judging someone else and not of themselves. Always quick to point out the faults of others yet are always stone silent regarding their own shortcomings.
If there is something that amazing and uplifting about their holy books, something so profound that they would dedicate their entire life to it, why not show us that greatness and profundity through their own actions? Why not show us how great it is to be a child of God? Instead, their harshness and judgmentalism proves that they are just as much a sinner as the rest of us because their god always preaches against being judgmental. You know, the whole “he who has not sinned throw the first stone” shtick? To me the issue is simple. It's not actually religion that is the root of the problem here. Rather, the issue is people who wield a book like a cudgel to hurt others.
I have always felt that most of the fundamental tenets of religion are beautiful. However, people make it ugly. If you choose to believe in God, then I think this god is a reflection of who you actually are, not who you pretend to be.
So, if your faith dictates that you oppose homosexuality, it’s not because you are accuratelyrepresenting your god and religion but rather because you are homophobic, and this homophobia can be caused by a variety of factors.
That is why it’s possible for me to have both friends and foes who are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, agnostic, or atheist. When my religious neighbor tells me I’m going to hell for being a lesbian, because his religious texts tell him so, while my secular neighbor tells me it’s wrong to be gay because of “the laws of nature.” As if homosexuality is not a pervasive aspect of nature. As if it hasn’t been practiced by humans since the dawn of time.
Simply put, homophobia has been ingrained in the human experience from time immemorial. Is this the result of intolerant religions? Partially, yes. But then how is it that so many of God's children remain unphased by the sight of LGBTQ+ folks in their community? Why are there Christians at the gay pride parade?
It is tempting to say this is due to an increase in tolerance on a societal level, but I also think that it's more complex than that. There are more factors at play than just religion that “makes” someone homophobic.
Yuvbal Noah Harai, an openly gay scientist and author, said in an interview, “If a heterosexual man finds out that his neighbor is gay, he should be very happy about this.”
What Harai was getting at is that, if one’s neighbor is gay, then there is less of a competition for available mates in the straight man’s neighborhood. A gay neighbor will never be the reason why a heteronormative man cannot find a mate. More likely, he will have trouble finding a mate because intolerance is unattractive.
I agree with Harai’s statement. Homosexuals are just as natural as heterosexuals, and their existence is an evolutionary development meant to create a homeostasis amongst our ever-growing, unsustainably massive human population. Simply put: breeders be breeding, and we need as many gay people as possible to slow our roll. The Earth is a finite resource.
Our planet supports billions and billions of human beings who all need to eat, create waste, and multiply. What if every single human in our world were to find a mate and procreate? We are already steadily depleting our resources; the last thing we need is to blindly add to this strain.
Homosexuals are born the way they are, naturally. It is not a choice made by the individual; it is a choice made by nature, by biology. The genetics of our parents have built into it a tendency towards homosexual offspring. Giving birth to homosexuals is a logical, evolutionary means of guaranteeing that the next generation of lovers will not always end up in increased reproductive fecundity and adding ever more hungry mouths to our already overpopulated world.
This is the issue, is it not? Reproduction. I love how people try to argue that the sole point of sex is to reproduce. If that is the case, then why is it we find so many people talking about their robust sex lives and dynamic relationships, and yet don’t have the dozens of kids to show for it? Why use condoms? Why use birth control? Moreover, why have sex at all after you ready your 50s or 60’, when the danger of giving birth increases?
We all know that, aside from having children, sex is a way to build intimacy and sharepleasure with an intimate partner. In fact, this is often the main reason most of us have sex. The real problem when it comes to religious or moral arguments against homosexuality is perhaps that the LGBTQ+ community has the liberty of pleasure without the obligation of pregnancy.
No matter how hard we try, two women will never have sex and get one another pregnant, and the same goes for men. Now, of course, there are ways around this, such as in vitro fertilization, but we are strictly speaking here about the natural act of sexual intercourse.
Many religious and reactionary cultures around the world teach their children that the primary purpose in life is to reproduce and multiply, even when that goal is not shared by the younger generation. One such especially egregious example of this is women and girls who are forced into marriage and pregnancy at young ages and against their will, such as is known to take place in India, the Middle East, and parts of Africa.
This is perhaps where some reflexive anger and frustration against homosexuality comes from. How is it that a certain group of people can enjoy sexual intimacy without the responsibilities of parenthood? I think this is what angers reactionary people the most. They don’t like the fact that some people have attained this type of freedom while they have been taught that a big man in the sky has forbidden them from such “no strings attached” enjoyment of the human body.
Just because one has to share this Earth with a certain population of people, who might not do the things they do, doesn't mean that we need to resort to made-up rules and stories thatforbid others the right to enjoy their lives.
Over the past few decades, and especially since the global sexual revolution of the 1960s, self-love and self-expression have been at the forefront of peoples' minds. Human beings—and yes, even women, gay people, and others—have chosen to focus on the things that make them happy with little regard for how others might feel about it. This is the way it should be.
We need to live our lives according to what makes us happy, whole, fulfilled, and vibrant, instead of what our parents, churches, or religious leaders say we must do.
It is no wonder that the projected population will level out around 10 billion people, according to the UN Population Division, around the year 2100. There is already a decrease in births per year. One reason for this sustainable leveling out is the LGBTQ+ community having the courage and fortitude to unapologetically come out to themselves and their communities at a younger and younger age. We don’t have to wait to ask permission or wait until some authority figure says it’s okay.
We have a duty to ourselves, to the human species, and to the Planet Earth to proudly proclaim:
We are Gay, we are Proud, we are Happy. The Planet appreciates you for who you are: a natural human being.