| | Hi Chris,
Chris: Okay, Regi: if you want it both ways... be my guest. Just know: It's a choice.
Well, of course, and I'll take responsibility for that choice, and if it turns out bad, I won't be blaming anyone else for it.
The extent of devastation in the American black community has been well documented; it may not manifest itself in suicide problems, but it does manifest itself in substance abuse, crime, and other conditions.
Since when is the cause of someone choosing to abuse themselves with drugs, commit crimes, and otherwise live irrationally anything but the responsibility of the one making the choice?
And we're lucky we live in a culture where you don't lose your limbs or life if you get caught performing a homosexual act. Yes, things are better today for gay men and women than they were, say, 40 years ago. But that's because gay men and women have taken to defending themselves and standing up for their right to exist.
In the first place, homosexuals still loose limbs and life if caught in may parts of the world today. Living an openly gay lifestyle in Saudi Arabia would be bit risky. So the world on that score, has not become any better. On the other hand, dismembering and execution for sexual practices were never a part of American culture.
In many ways, our culture today is more oppressive than earlier cultures. One reason I mentioned Oscar Wilde (Post #25) is because he is a good example of a homosexual who was both successful and prosecuted (not persecuted).
Oscar lived from 1854 to 1900. In those "oppressive" days, while dying in Paris, he was able to use all the morphine, opium, chloral (which we know as the basis of a "Mickey Finn"), which he washed down with champagne. Today he would be put in jail for medicating himself, even if the medication was prescribed.
It is true he was tried (three times) for sodomy, which was outlawed in those days, and was sent to prison for two years. (Both the trials and the imprisonment could have been avoided, by the way.) Interestingly, the result of Oscar's trial was less tolerance for homosexuals. Something today's homosexuals might consider in their activism.
"The Wilde trials caused public attitudes toward homosexuals to become harsher and less tolerant. Whereas prior to the trials there was a certain pity for those who engaged in same-sex passion, after the trials homosexuals were seen more as a threat. The Wilde trials had other effects as well. They caused the public to begin to associate art and homoeroticism and to see effeminancy as a signal for homosexuality. Many same sex relationships seen as innocent before the Wilde trials became suspect after the trials." [The Wilde Trials]
Oh, by the way, in these more "tolerant" times, Oscar would not be tried for sodomy, for which he got two years, he would be tried for drug possession with intent to sell, and sentenced to a mandatory twenty five years.
Chris: And with all this alleged inner contradiction going on in the psyches of homosexuals: How do you explain the fact that so many great artists, philosophers, and such, have been homosexual? ... I just don't understand how people who are so fundamentally wrong about one of the most important aspects of their humanity can be so fundamentally right in other areas. ... I don't mean this flippantly... I'm honestly baffled.
Now people accuse me of being flip all the time, because I am, but if you are ever flip, I've never seen it.
As for your question, and I'm not being flip, the answer is compartmentalization. Some, such as those you gave as examples of being successful, are much better at it than the others, such as those who make up the inordinate numbers with psychological and personality problems.
Here are some interesting comments by a successful homosexual: He said he was "ashamed on having led a life unworthy of an artist," and, "I became a spendthrift of my genius and to waste an eternal youth gave me a curious joy."
--Oscar Wilde
Regi
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