The Ninth Street Center Ninth Street Center Journal

Society's Fear of Homosexuality
by Paul Rosenfels, June 25, 1984

The biological goal of living is reproduction. The individual becomes a larger psychological entity when he ceases to live simply for himself and becomes the means for bringing a new generation into being. This process is guided by the division of the species into male and female.

Human beings are capable of psychological goals which enable the individual to increase his self-importance beyond purely personal considerations such as survival of the self. These goals consist of the need to improve the quality of life for the self and others. Whereas reproduction guarantees the continuity of the species, the struggle to improve the quality of life provides that this continuity will be increasingly worthwhile. If human knowledge and skill are to increase, individuals must make the search for truth and right primary goals in their lives. The key to the increase of truth and right is to be found in the specialization of personalities in either submission or dominance patterns. Insight requires the willingness to give in to the nature of reality. This process is feminine in its structure. Mastery requires the kind of manipulative skill which is guided by a pure form of dominance and is masculine in structure.

The nurturing and protecting of offspring provides an obvious pattern of living beyond the self. The pursuit of truth and right produces ideas and skills which take on an existence separate from the self and leads to an inner intensity and vigor comparable in its psychic effects to biological reproduction.

The polarity that exists in the biological field between male and female is duplicated in the psychological area between submissive and dominant personalities. The problem that exists for society consists in the simple fact that males no longer are a unit in contrast to females. Within each gender group there are both dominant and submissive character types.

The natural attraction between the genders is undermined by character specialization. A dominant male and a dominant female cannot have a deep sense of the pairing which comes from a genuine polarity, nor can a submissive male and a submissive female. Instead, society relies on contrasts in surface characteristics to cement the sexes together.

The potential for polarized attraction within the male group and within the female group is seen by society as a threat to family life since patterns of falling in love are altered. To counteract this tendency character specialization is ignored and has become society's best kept secret. Surface male and female traits are strictly reinforced and granted an absolute authority in human relationships.

Sexual activity can be of two main kinds, divisible into fraternal sexuality and mated sexuality. In the fraternal pattern sex speaks to sex, and can be described as mutual masturbation. Mated sexuality is part of an ongoing relationship in which the partners contribute to each other's psychological growth, based on their psychological differences.

Fraternal sexuality is seen to be "dirty" in its nature. It is both private and secret, and is regarded as a phenomenon to be outgrown. Society really does not actively oppose it, as long as it remains hidden and secret. It can be homosexual or heterosexual in nature, but heterosexuality receives considerable respect as a possible preparation for marriage.

As long as homosexuality remains in the fraternal pattern it is seen as sexual play which does not force society to recognize character polarity. It fits the closet image of the homosexual life. It is when homosexuality asks to be taken seriously as a worthy lifestyle that society's fear of it becomes intense and outspoken. When men are capable of genuine mating, the entire superstructure of society's belief in what it is to be a man is undermined, and the same holds true for being a woman.

Human truth and right become devalued when character specialization is ignored. Individuals believe what they want to believe, guided by society's need to reinforce and support popular misconceptions about human nature. Genuine morality cannot exist without objective standards based on human skills so that men can distinguish between what really works and what does not.

The only way that society's dependence on magical thinking and miraculous posturing can be overcome is by making truth and right primary goals of human development. Without the recognition of polarity in the civilized personality, there can be no science of human relationships and no objective engineering in the forming of human institutions. In such an ignorant and chaotic world, each man is free to give his opinions the status of truth and his acts the status of morality. It is a world condemned to support eternal warfare and social injustice.

-- reprinted from The Ninth Street Center Journal 4, Winter 1984