9. In one crucial respect the social acceptance of homosexuality makes matters worse, not better, for the homosexual himself. If my body needs protein, it will not do to try to fool it with starches. If the male homosexual needs a true male friendship, and affirmation as a man, he will not attain it by adopting the pose of a woman. That stands to reason.
But there are additional reasons why the best society for a homosexual is one that does not condone his behavior. I am not talking about cruel severity. If people understand that some folks are unfortunately attracted to members of their own sex, and if, while they neither seek to reveal it nor feel compelled to punish it, they make it known by custom that they do not approve of it, then the homosexual is provided with a merciful curb on his behavior.
Guard Rail
That explains why homosexuals seem to plunge further into bizarre and self-destructive behaviors precisely in those places where bigotry against them is slightest. For homosexuals themselves admit that they delight in being “transgressive,” that is, in crossing the boundaries of what is decent or even speakable.
It follows that the nature of the transgressing behavior will depend upon where the society draws the line. Even if it draws the line rather close, the homosexual will likely stay content with merely crossing that line. If, to be specific, it is unspeakable to suggest that a man will engage in a particular form of sexual release with another man, then the transgressor can do that, and let there be an end of it.
But if the line is drawn farther off, or not drawn at all, then the homosexual must go ever farther for the same thrill of transgression; he must, as we have seen in such cities as San Francisco and Seattle, invent methods and combinations that are too saddening to enumerate. That such things are common in the homosexual community should be revealing; and it is a poor charity that shrugs and pretends that all is well. AIDS is only one disease in a panoply of ailments that the male homosexual suffers, through abuse of his body. Perhaps the reader should pause to consider why hepatitis is so common a killer of homosexual men.
