|
One should scrutinize and challenge, rather than automatically accept, expert opinion in all areas. It’s the presumed experts, after all, who got us into Vietnam and Iraq; who for centuries told us that blacks were born inferior, divinely designed to be the servants and slaves of their white superiors; who told women that they lacked the capacity to reason and to think abstractly, whose natural place was in the home, raising children and catering to the needs of their superior husbands.
In regard to orthodoxy and authority, Americans need to hold in mind Jefferson’s insistence that we need a revolution every twenty years. In my opinion, too many gay people have become mere assimilationists. They want in, they claim to be “just folks.” I don’t buy it. We’ve had a different historical experience, and as a result have developed a unique subculture with a special set of values and perspectives. That subculture has much to teach the mainstream in regard to a host of matters, including sexuality and relationships, the importance of friendship, and how best to raise children. The mainstream is much in need of what we have to offer. But that interchange will never happen if we continue to put issues like gay marriage and gays in the military at the top of our agenda. We should instead be affirming non-monogamous adventuring, the periodic blessings of singleness, the joy of not being imprisoned in traditional family structures. Similarly, we should be assailing the war-making machine instead of begging to be allowed to join in the killing.
-- Martin Duberman, interviewed in The Gay and Lesbian Review
|
