Abbey-Roads2

Demeaning and unwanted behavior.

Spero News  has an interesting piece on the case of four San Diego firemen suing because they were obliged to participate in the city’s annual Gay Pride parade.  They not only had to participate in the parade, they also endured lewd and lascivious comments and behavior from the homosexual bystanders.

During the course of the ensuing three hour long ordeal, the firefighters were subjected to vile sexual taunts from homosexuals lining the parade route.  This included the following statements: “show me your hose,” “you can put out my fire,” “you’re making me hot,” “give me mouth-to-mouth,” “you look hungry, why don’t you have a twinkie (from a man wearing a “Girth and Mirth” t-shirt),” and “blow my hose.” These firemen are devoted husbands and fathers. When they refused to respond to the crowd, some in the crowd turned hostile and started shouting, “F—k you firemen” and others began “flipping them off.” - Spero News 

This story reminded me of the harassment the angels who visited Sodom endured from the Sodomites in their demand to have sex with Lot’s heavenly visitors.  “Where are the men who came to your house tonight?  Bring them out to us that we may have intimacies with them.” - Genesis 19: 5

Boys will be boys.

Sounds far fetched and homophobic?  It is not.  I think many people would be surprised at how many straight men have had some sort of unwanted sexual attention from gay men.  Oftentimes it may be innocent enough, not unlike the pick-up lines exchanged between men and women when the man is interested in the other.  Nevertheless, when boundaries are respected, this type of exchange can be politely, yet firmly rebuffed.

In the highly sexualized homosexual milieu, wherein adolescent sexual fantasies can predominate, and most men are assessed on the basis of physical attractiveness and penis size, boundaries can almost become non-existent.  Maybe it is just a ‘boys will be boys’ type of phenomenon, wherein it is assumed men feel comfortable talking about sexual prowess and conquest, that some gay men feel at ease expressing their lust towards another man.  Or maybe some of them are just really perverts - despite the fact they don’t like that term.

Harassment as a civil right.

I’ve experienced unwanted sexual advances - at the gym, in the monastery, and in the workplace.  I left a job once because of it.  The assistant to my vice-president, hounded me to have sex with him for better than a year.  When promotion time came around he finally said to me, “You know what you have to do to get ahead.”  (I had to sleep with him and become his lover.)  Why didn’t I complain?  My vice-president was also gay.  I wouldn’t have accomplished a thing if I complained, so I left, unprepared as I was in the early 1980’s to pursue a big legal fight with HR over it.  (It was a relief to finally get out of a predominantly gay business.)

Certainly most men haven’t encountered this type of harassment, but I’m certain not a few have found themselves the object of some form of unwanted sexual attention - especially if they live in a major metropolitan area.  So what’s the big deal?  Men can defend themselves against it or simply ignore it and move on as I did in leaving my job.  After all, we must be tolerant of other people’s sexual preference, even when we feel it is immoral and offensive, because it is a legally protected ‘civil right’.  (Except I don’t think people have a right to harassment and immorality.)

Tolerance is one thing, acceptance of other people is another - a civil society needs this - but it must be within reason as well as reciprocal.    Considering how sex-based gay culture is, I wonder if gay people are capable of this?

(Photo: Gay fantasy involves the sexualization of male archetypes. There are many photos online depicting fireman as sexual objects, and these can be found on heterosexual sites as well.)