Racism & Homosexuality

A prominent view in our times is that the negative view of homosexual activity is the same as discrimination that existed in the human past against those with different skin color. This article attempts to point out why this is not the case. 

In our human past, certain groups of Caucasian races decided that those with different skin color were less than human. Thus, it was considered that these individuals can be treated in an inhumane manner. People of different color were denied rights that other humans would share because they did not qualify as human beings. They were treated and handled as property because of the same reason i.e. they are not human.

Now there are indeed those who oppose homosexual activity because they consider homosexual persons to be less than human. Though the act of opposing homosexual activity is justifiable, this underlying concept of homosexual persons being less than human is indeed in error. Homosexual persons are in-fact humans. The countries that consider persons with homosexual tendencies to be less than human are therefore certainly worthy of correction.  

However, the valid objections to homosexual activity are indeed based on the very fact that homosexual persons are indeed human. It is the very reason that homosexual persons are indeed human that dictate their homosexual activity itself be rejected. If homosexual persons were less than human, then it would certainly not be the concern of anyone that they engage in sort of activity among themselves. After all, the animal kingdom is full of examples of homosexual activity. But because homosexuals are indeed human, we must consider if promoting homosexual activity is compatible with the common good. As shown in the previous post, promoting homosexual activity is indeed against the common good. Therefore it must rightly be opposed. 

In this sense, the opposition against homosexual activity cannot be compared with racism. While a person maybe born or lead to homosexual tendencies through no fault of their own, it simply has to be discouraged because the activity is against the common good. To use an analogy, a person who is unusually prone to anger by birth/social factors needs to be discouraged against acting on this disposition. This is not because the person is less than human but indeed because he is human and him being encouraged to act this way will violate the common good.

The readers must be reminded that the problem with racism is not due to race being a category that a human being cannot choose/change before/after his/her birth.  Racism is problem because all persons of all races are human. Homosexual activity is problematic because it is not acceptable that such an activity be promoted/accepted among human beings (because it is contrary to the common good). Thus to compare the two issues is to compare apples and oranges.

* * *