Devon Dick
RECENTLY, I was watching Larry King's interview on USA's CNN with Mary Cheney, daughter of the vice-president of America. Mary is in a homosexual relationship while her older sister, Elizabeth, has four children and is pregnant. That the Cheneys have two daughters, with opposing sexual lifestyles, has triggered another examination of the popular arguments used in support of homosexuality.
The dominant European intellectual position is that homo-
sexuality is genetic. But how does one explain genetically the Cheneys having two daughters and one is in a homosexual relationship and the other in one that is hetero-sexual? Who passed on the homosexual gene to Mary and how did it not get to Elizabeth? Last year, one leading scientist in Jamaica, said homosexuality is genetically connected. The genetic argument is problematic. It would mean that identical twins would have to be of the same sexual orientation.
In addition, if there was a homosexual gene how is it reproduced? Since it is a gene that makes one enter into a homosexual relationship, then there ought not to be any heterosexual contact, so then how is the homosexual gene reproduced? The genetic argument is really pseudo scientific mumbo jumbo.
BY CHOICE
In the 1970s, when I read writers who were in a homosexual relationship, they stated that it was a choice. And they were proud of the choice and claimed that they preferred it to being in a male/female relationship. I believe that it is better to claim that homosexuality is a choice. It seems more consistent with how God has made us. God made us as sexual beings with capacity to react to sexual stimuli. He has not made us as robots so that he predetermines our sexual choices. We are made as free human beings and we must accept responsibility for our sexual actions.
There is also a popular Jamaican myth that Jamaican men cannot be monogamous because it is in their 'nature.' It is alleged that is 'suh dem mek.' Again blaming God and genes. However, one man having many women is a lifestyle choice. It is not in our 'nature' or genes.
Fellow columnist, Martin Henry pointed out last week that some persons in Europe are claiming that they have an orientation towards paedophiles and they have a right to exercise that lifestyle. They are also claiming a right to incest. These are all lifestyle choices and not any genetic orientation.
Therefore, since engaging in these sexual activities constitutes lifestyle choices then each society must be sovereign and decide how these choices will be treated with.
A country might decide that homosexuality, incest and paedophilia are illegal. Similarly some countries have polygamy as illegal while others allow it. We should not impose on sovereign nations but respect their sexual values even as we share ours. In America, it is illegal to publish pictures of dead soldiers coming back in bags. That is American freedom of the press!
Another position on homosexuality, since it is a choice, is that it could be tolerated. It is seen as wrong or unnatural but tolerated, similar to how this society treats adultery. It is frowned upon but it is not a criminal activity.
The third position one could consider is treating the homosexual lifestyle as equally valid and appropriate as a marriage. In that context, those persons could be in civil unions and get benefits similar to persons in marriage.
However, Europeans must stop trying to tell Jamaica how to manage its sexual affairs. Allow Jamaicans to make our own choice concerning homosexuality and what is sexually appropriate for us as a society.
Rev Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'Rebellion to Riot: the Church in Nation Building'.
