From: radams@crchh404.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Rodney Adams)
Newsgroups: rec.org.mensa
Subject: Re: Geneticism
Date: 5 Oct 92 18:22:47 GMT
Reply-To: "Rodney Adams" <RADAMS@BNR.CA>
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ltd.

In article <1992Oct5.143437.26233@ncsu.edu>, not@ailab.ncsu.edu (N O Tai) writes:
|> 
|> From the keyboard of radams@BNR.CA (Rodney Adams):
|> : By the way, I do consider homosexual relations ... a perversity.  Even 
|> : casting religious beliefs aside, such relations are entirely unnatural, 
|> : as they can never lead to offspring.  This does not cause me to hate such 
|> : individuals, and indeed I have worked with and came to respect such an
|> : individual, but the act itself I can see as nothing less than disgusting.
|> : Why would anyone not born with such a genetic defect actually choose to 
|> : commit such perversity?  I have even heard that some study showed that 
|> : most people do have some homosexual experience sometime in their lives, 
|> : but I can honestly say that I have never once had such a desire.
|> 
|> My wife had a conditioned dislike of bananas. She couldn't even stand the 
|> smell, but she had no adverse health reaction to bananas. We had little to 
|> eat once and were very hungry. A friend unknowing brought us a huge bunch 
|> of bananas and a few other things. My wife finally tried a banana, and then 
|> another and another. Now she likes bananas! 

It would be neither feasible nor desirable for me to "try a banana" (ugh!) in 
this instance.
 
|> Now, if you had some kind of physical reaction to participating in homosex, 
|> I could excuse it as justified. Since you don't, I must assume that you have 
|> a phobia; it is called homophobia. Now there is such a thing as not wishing 
|> to participate in homosex because it is not interesting to you, just as some 
|> think bananas don't taste all that good. But you insist that you have a 
|> viceral reaction to even discussing homosexual acts. That is the more 
|> extreme form of homophobia. You are truly frightened of even the concept, or 
|> of the act occurring around you even if you needn't participate. This is 
|> clearly conditioned and represents a genuine fear (phobia) on your part. 
|> There have been a lot of people who couldn't admit their homosexuality who 
|> have had this phobia and still do, but I think it can occur without that. 
 
Homophobes are those who hate or fear homosexuals.  I neither hate nor fear.
As to the act itself, I do not fear it, as homosexuality plays no part in my
life.  It simply will not affect me.  My aversion to it is simply that - an
aversion that I fully realize, but one which will not affect any decisions
that I make.  It did eliminate fully half of the world's population when I
was looking for a mate, but now that I have done so, the matter is purely
academic for me.  As to my reaction being conditioned, homosexuality does
go against what religious convictions I possess, but even without these I
would still have no understanding of how others could possibly choose 
homosexuality.  Then again, perhaps this is akin to me trying to understand
why some people like green beans (ugh!).

|> However, you must realize that such a powerful phobia as yours is indeed a 
|> disruption to others who feel as normal as pie about homosex going on around 
|> them, even if they decline to try it. They are usually simply interested in 
|> heterosex and have no feeling one way or the other about homosex, as would 
|> seem obvious and appropriate. But you continue to generate an irrational 
|> fear not only of you having it accepted by you, but also the practice of it 
|> around you and even condoning it for others who like it. This is clearly a 
|> phobia which interferes with others' right to life, liberty, and the pursuit 

I see my beliefs for what they are; by doing so I do not let them stand in the
way of others' rights.

|> of happiness. Surely you aren't such a coward that you cannot even watch 
|> homosex dispassionately, since, I presume, it elicits no passion in you? Or 
|> is that really true?... 

I am not a voyeur, whether the participants are male or female, homo or hetero.
 
|> Whereas the reaction of a reasonable person to homosex might be, "oh, that's 
|> interesting", as in watching two women if the watcher is hetero; or two men, 
|> if the watcher is hetero, it might be, "wheee, then there's more women for 
|> me", instead you present us with your dark shit and ask us to tolerate your 
|> intolerance. Nothing doing.
|> 
|> Dr N.O. Tai
 
My "intolerance," if such I have, is tempered by a desire to understand the
actions and motivations of others.  You, however, have done nothing more than
try to analyze me, something which I am quite capable of doing myself.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rodney G. Adams
The opinions expressed above are not necessarily those of my employer.
As if you didn't already know that....
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: All men could be cremated equal."
                                                              - Vern Parlow
Newsgroups: rec.org.mensa