Activism under the Magnifying Glass

Activism under the magnifying glass:

The recent fuss concerning the Proposition 8 vote in California that defines marriage as an issue between a man and a woman has me wonder why people never learn from history?
Right now “Gay activists” are challenging the Prop. 8 results. However how many are Gay activists? Among the gays the actual marching forces of activists are a small % of an already small group of people. And this is the problem in my opinion.

It seems people forget the words of Rev. Martin Niemoeller

” In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. They then came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

ã - Rev. Martin Niemoeller

What Rev. Niemoeller is talking about is the Nazi dictatorship and the persecution of many. Unfortunately when we talk about the Nazi period, we simply think “Jews + Holocaust”. We tend to forget that besides the Jews, a lot of other people got persecuted. Niemoeller in his quote did not even mention the Gypsies and the Homosexuals who got to face the same “final solution”, - and the mentally & physically disabled.
Today people debate the numbers of Jews killed during this time. Revisionists doubt the 6 million claims. What ever the final number will be is of little matter, but for this issue I stick with the 6 million Jews killed. However I might add and underline that besides these 6 million Jews, 5 million of the “Others” were also killed. And here is the problem with our collective memory on history!
Of 100 or so documentaries on the 3rd Reich only 1 or 3 out of these 100 documentaries report on the fact that besides the Jews, other minorities were persecuted as well. 5,000,000 “Others” versus 6,000,000 Jews looks close to a 50/50 balance! Yet the holocaust is today seen as a “Jewish Only tragedy”. And there is the problem!
Now why is everyone talking about the 6 million Jews but not about the almost same number of these “Others”? Simply because those “other” 5 million consisted of people who in their convictions, lifestyles and believes often opposed each other! Parts of the 5 million were for example Jehovah witnesses! They got the invitation to the gas chambers because of their refusal to serve in the Wehrmacht. They were simply “Draft dodgers”. It is obvious that these lovely Jehovah’s were and still are totally opposed to homosexuality. The others, as the trade unionists, Socialists, Communists and so forth were made up of people from all walks of life; some might have been gay, most were not.
“Divide and conquer” is an old military as well political strategy! And it is unfortunate that the “Left” or the liberal and enlightened people forget their history! The right on the other hand has a cunning way of uniting when convenient! It is very strange that during the presidential campaign the Mormon candidate was clobbered by the RRR and just a few month later the same Mormons and other Christian forces who where at each other’s throats before became united against the gays. Strangely enough the same happened in the 1990 during an UN conference on World population control. The Catholic Church and the Muslims are at each other’s throats since their existence. However when the more “worldly UN” proposed the expansion of family planning and birth control, these two major bastions of faith banded together and voted the proposal down! The “rightwing” seems to be able to unite seemingly opposing forces at the snap of a finger, and the left wing is unable to do so?
Again back to the numbers! The debate who is gay and who is not varies between 3% to 10% of the population, depending on the source. Those who use the 3% number seem to count absolutely only those who are in an open gay lifestyle, while the 10% numbers is quotes as inclusive to those who are not out in the open. But where is the Bi-Sexual % of the population, and why would it even matter? It matters a lot! Here is why!
I personally stick with the understanding that most people, close to 80% are bi-sexual. However past a few “gay-experiments” during puberty in the forms of a few showing one’s development and maybe a mutual jerk off with a friend, most people then turn to a complete heterosexual lifestyle. This heterosexual lifestyle is driven by the natural instinct to procreate and ensure the continuation of our species. However past the procreative period, people then again begin to discover their true likings. In one talk show some years back I have heard that 40% or so of all American divorces are because of a same sex encounter of one of the partners. Now I can’t vouch for this number nor do I have statistics to back this up. However I do remember this number being used in the talk show.
Most people understand under bi-sexual a person that is “Equally drawn” to both genders. And yet there is the problem! When we debate the 3% or the 10% number accuracy on gays then these different figures come also from different interpretations. The low 3% number is derived from a census that discounts all puberty related gay sexual encounters. (Some do last quite a considerable time till into the late teens and early 20’s) The 10% census takes exactly those numbers into account.
I personally consider the 10% number as the number of those who are so predominately attracted to the same sex, that they see no reason, have no desire nor even the least attraction towards the opposite sex. However the silent majority of Bi-sexual I do blame for their silence and inactivity. I consider also many heterosexuals people who have either never experimented with the same sex, not even during the puberty times or who have been under such social/church/community pressure that the thought of any other sex but the missionary position is foreign to them. I think that the (silent) bi-sexual and unaware that he is bi-sexual heterosexual person is who he is simply because of social conditioning. Because if a person is let us say to 80% Heterosexual but would be able, if encouraged or exposed without guilt to a same sex encounter, enjoy the other 20% of his sexuality in this fashion, then the 20% “gayness” in him is not that predominant as to pose a serious “urge” to him. For this reason, he then accepts very easily and adapts very easily to social conditioning! So even if he is 20% gay, he would not “miss” this lifestyle, since the other 80% of his sexual likes are met.
Most gay haters however are well known for being the “closet gays”. And those are exactly these people who discover their likes for the same sex way after the exploratory puberty phase. These people have envy! People who have recovered from their life long confinement to superstition (Religion) often are raging with anger inside. Their rage is not against the religion as such; it is for their “Lost time” within this religion. For not having enjoyed life as the rest of people had, for having not had a drink, a smoke, a enjoyment of the arts and so forth because of the restrictive social conditions within their religion. Closet gays stand out in this that they insist that if they had lost out on all the fun, then no one else should have fun that had been denied to them.
Now to the major point of this argument:
We do know that in many Islamic countries, homosexuality is severely punished. Now why does the bi-sexual matter in this debate? There comes the issue that Niemoeller raises. As long as it is not right in our own back yard it is not our business. However let us examine the issue of a brutal anti gay legislation. Suppose the USA would now adopt some very draconian laws akin to the Islamic states on homosexuality. Would those laws then differentiate between a 100% gay person and his lifestyle and let us say 2 swinging heterosexual couples who also have on occasion a bit of gay and lesbian sex? Would then not this “bisexual” man face the same brutal legal persecution also he is most of the time “heterosexual”? Is homosexuality defined as a lifestyle or a sex-act? Is one gay sex act among consenting couples engaged in swinging enough to consider this man gay? If we look at the many restrictions and prohibitions on anal sex in some states, it tends to support the reason that the “Act” alone is what defines the anti gay agenda.
So why then do the Bi-sexual people not stand up and defend the gays? Are they so delusional to believe that this is not affecting them? On a personal level, I cannot remotely imagine ever to be enjoying the BD/Sm scene. However I did more then once sign petitions against police harassment of local BD/Sm clubs. The reason is exactly based on the statement of Niemoeller. Sure it does not affect me in person if the authorities close down that club or not. I have never shown interests in this scene, I have never even fantasized about it and I have no inclination to ever explore it. However I am a nudist. I want my beaches. I want nudism to become more and more acceptable. And it has to do exactly with this issue. Because if they close me down the BD/Sm club, then they have taken one contingent of the sexual variety army out of action. 1 down, 99 more to go. Then what or who is next? The gay nude dancers? The lesbian dance show? The nude show with one female and 2 men or the one with 2 females and one man? The transvestites? Who is next? There might be 100 other entities, interests and so forth that are on the priority agenda of the RRR before they even look at my nude lifestyle! But if they chip away one after the next, eventually my nude beach is next! And all this because I didn’t say a word when they came and closed down the BD/Sm club …