the poetrysheet
whimsy, subversion, bowling
Number 506, June 14, 2004
Kalidasa (B.C 170-?)
J. Edgar Gets Married updates and information here
“‘Let’s stay out of it,’ she said. ‘It isn’t any of our business.’
“I hunted for my
Chiclets but couldn’t find them. ‘It might be everybody’s business,’ I said,
‘every patriot’s.’”
—James
Thurber, “The Lady on 142,” in The Thurber Carnival
Natural
versus unnatural
An
argument frequently heard against homosexuality, and, by extension, homosexual
marriage, is the one that begins, “It’s not natural…”
Those
who use this argument often confuse what’s natural or “what nature intended”
with what they accept or are comfortable with.
For
instance, today’s strains of soybeans, corn, and wheat are not natural either,
but imagine a world without them. They have been bred and crossbred, selected
for favorable traits, and bred again. Left to nature, they quickly return to
the wild strains they came from. Thus, what we eat from the modern farm does
not exist in nature. As a matter of fact, little farm produce exists in nature.
But it doesn’t stop perfectly sane people from accepting it, even, on occasion,
calling it a natural product.
In the
same way, what, exactly, is natural about a television, a microwave oven, an
SUV, a communications satellite, or a “What Would Jesus Do?” thermal lunchbox?
While
those who argue gayness is not natural might accept and advocate such practices
as the death penalty, war on other nations, and grinding the poor under heels
of class and wealth, they won’t accept two human beings fulfilling sexual
fantasy or showing affection if they happen to be of the same sex—a practice,
by the way, that kills and maims far fewer people than capital punishment, war,
or poverty.
Sadly,
war, murder, and rape are natural to humans in that they are acts humans
perform on one another and have since either Adam got kicked out of the Garden
or Charley the Austrolopithicine raised his head above the grasses of the
Transvaal plain (depending on whether you believe the Bible or Darwin).
That
these war and the like are natural, however, does not make them good. War, for
instance, and all the ugliness that comes with it, are very human things. To
distance ourselves, we call war and its atrocities inhuman, imagining that we
are not capable of killing, mutilating, or destroying en masse. Still, who but
humans can be inhuman and inhumane to one another? And who but those who send
emissaries to do killing (i.e., armies, special forces, paratroopers, marines,
etc.) are responsible?
Granted,
humans aren’t the only species to protect and acquire territory, fight off intruders
and predators, and take sex violently from one another. But the species does it
in such human ways—guns, knives, chloroform—each of which is a product of
technology (tool making), and none of which is possible without the development
of the opposable thumb.
And few
would argue that advances in technology are refinements. It is, after all, much
easier to slaughter and eat another animal with a knife. The flip side is that
a knife makes it much easier to slaughter and eat another human.
The
deviation from gayness as natural or unnatural in my argument is only to make a
point. Two humans, having sexual relations with one another, can hardly be
unnatural. The argument that procreation is not involved in homosexuality, and
therefore, homosexuality is unnatural is an illogical and emotionally steamed
aside. Humans are the only animals who have sex for no other reason than to
have fun at it, show affection for one another, and to barter, trade, and
exhibit power—or not.
June
By Philip Miller
The month of the twins—
of double pleasures and double sins;
of vows said (and unsaid): the double bed,
or the queen or king for pairs
of all sizes to repair upstairs,
but where couples catch on soon
there's only one June moon
to watch through the window,
only one set of eyes, one perfect row
of pearly teeth to nibble,
the same old mate
to share each other's fate,
with whom to quibble
for life, to honor and appease,
that the two of them are Siamese,
and where they attach
there's a catch
that can be snapped, of course,
only with a June divorce.
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