Thoughts on California's Prop 8 and Integral Perspectives for Gay/Lesbians/Trangender
I have not been the advocate I should be against the Proposition 8. I finally took the time to read what the supporters of Prop 8 are saying and found it within myself to "educate" and to respond thoughtfully. I thought quite a bit about why I have been so quiet for so long. I have thought about why so many of us have been on the sidelines.
As a previous social studies student and a social activist, I have realized some things. Being active in this political controversy is exhausting and overwhelming. When I was in my 20's I was on a panel that went out into the public and educated people on gay issues. It was a very frightening thing in the early 90's to do this. There was a great deal of fear. Has this fear subsided? Quite frankly, the answer is a resounding, "No." Simply writing this is exhausting for me because it entails the recognition and memories of challenging circumstances that are emotionally charged for me and most gays.
This is an incredibly complex and difficult topic. During the 60's and after the peak of the anti-war riots, race riots, and the civil rights riots, the gay rights riots ensued. Stonewall is an example of one of them.
Because of the intensity of the riots, there was fear that homosexuals would be demonized as "the boogeymen." The umbrella issue is gay rights. Nonetheless, the sources of the movement stem from a multifaceted and complex reality concerning human rights in general. For instance, some of the gay rights issues have to do with visibility and public presence vs. invisibility, shame and internalized oppression (which is fundamentally a psychological derivation), and the very ambiguous and broad concern of equality.
Also, there continues to be arguments regarding the principles (source, origin, and cause) of morality and the subsequent myths that are so readily accepted by a society and that society's psychology. An example of a myth would be that whatever is done through the established system is legal. The issue in its most basic form would be the fact that when whomever is in power is a dominator, they meet their agenda by doing what they do through a semblance of legality. The courts and legislators may, at a whim, legalize and systematize anti-gay legislation thereby impacting and influencing public opinion and consequently "demoralizing," "demonizing," or "otherizing" homosexuals. This has been done throughout history and has developed a powerful fundamentalist following.
Another example of the abuse of systems of power and knowledge is the epistemological abuse of science. Funding may be streamed to research that is scientifically based in stigmatizing homosexuality as an epidemic or a disease. The DSM IV is a great example of how gays' "voice" and social participation were disqualified due to the impact of the DSM's stigmatization of homosexuality as a mental illness rather than a social prejudice issue. The issue of gay rights is an issue of social acceptance of cultural deviations, arguments of moral principles, myths, and control. The abuse of law, science, and psychology (or its limitations), can lead to powerful tools that convince the public to accept certain ideologies as "truth," when, in fact, they are myths and misinformation that lead to an abandonment of justice and human rights.
The rights of gays is a slow process that takes its course much like the workings of glaciers carving their way through canyons. The process is slow and tedious. Some gays are closeted and are saturated in the working of internalized oppression and are more likely to kill themselves or live a lie than to be found out. I can clearly recognize now that many gays shut down and turn off because they are overwhelmed. The fact that the issues surrounding being gay and confronting society's endless systems of prejudice tear at the emotions and leave us haggard and weary. Hopelessness is prevalent, and yet persistence somehow remains because as long as we live, we are gay, and there is no avoiding the endless confrontations. The cycle of despair, rage, action, hopelessness, depression, indifference, and denial repeat throughout our lives. Each one of us faces the problem of unjust treatments in unique ways, provoked by our initiation into a lifeworld that thrusts us into the obligation of battling oppression as our vocation. It is not necessarily a choice for any of us, but the fact of being fully human in an incredibly painful and challenging oppressive situation.
We must not remain passive. We must not accept the dominant paradigm's model and functions. Most of the time, change occurs in the face of extremely volatile, tumultuous times where the oppressed are confronting their oppressors. It is when the oppressed are "suffering in silence" that they must become more engaged with those whom are the receptors of the toxicity of a dysfunctional social order where some are face to face with the inadequacies and the negligence of the dominant paradigm's model and functions.
We must be attuned to our own biases and to the political conditions of the time. We must be aware that we are historical beings carrying the teleosynchronicity of experiences where our present day functions are responses derived from our genealogy of family, society, circumstance, values, behavior, and the archeology of our being and our psychology as a collective reaction to the elements and events of today. We must understand that we are the propagators of greater social change.
The politics involved are the politics of morality, knowledge, law, human rights, and justice.
I am going to draw from the psychological history of our society now. Most of the conflicts have arisen because there developed the differentiation of the individual body from the "social body." The differentiation served the freedom of the individual to use their body in order to fulfill their own particularized needs rather than appealing the limited use of their body to the obligations of a moral code, essentially derived from archaic religious texts and the subsequent laws that materialized from the worldviews that originated from such religious codes. Rather than the body belonging to that of "Adam," the body then belonged to that of science (thanks to Descartes). Then, the body is now belonging to that of the desires, needs and liberty of the individual (thanks to Humanitarianism). The aforementioned progressions are a reflection of human development (mythic, rational, and existential), and deeper levels of awareness, bringing society closer to the realization and practice of freedom. Conversely, however, is the antagonist to such new-found practices in freedom which is anchored in traditional models of behavior. Consequently, control becomes a means, strategy, and tactic for those whom are not psychologically prepared to assimilate such freedom into their current worldview, for it tests the very foundation upon which the construct of their lives have been established. If the mediating world interjected such possibilities as the practice of freedom and planted its seed in the psyche of people, there is no doubt that an existential crisis awaits, challenging a new worldview to take root. In a sense, to accept homosexuality as a healthy and morally attuned reality is to relinquish oneself and one's psyche to a kind of death and its process of mourning the old self as the new self emerges.
We can heighten, stimulate, and catalyze the learning process where critical reflection and inter-subjectivity refine the capacity for human beings to understand their lifeworld and others. Greater understanding leads to greater choices and dignified responses to social issues.
Just some thought.
Loves and hugs and peace is you,
Anna
This is that and so are you.