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The troubled gays
Being a homosexual is not easy in our American
society that places a high value on conformity.
As was pointed out last week in a Daily Nebraskan
series on homosexuality, gay life is often characterized
by oppression, discrimination and traumatic
experiences. Homosexuals often find it difficult to
accept themselves as normal when doctors tell them
they're sick, the state tells them they're criminals and
their church tells them they're sinners.
But gay life is undergoing a rapid change as militant
homosexuals, under the banner of the gay liberation
movement, are now demanding acceptance, equal rights
and even approval.
Homosexuality, long considered a taboo subject, is
now discussed and debated openly as evidenced by the
recent ASUN conference on human sexuality. An
increasing number of homosexuals are also coming out
of their closets and taking personal pride in their sexual
preference. Locally this new pride has been shown in
the formation of the University of Nebraska Gay Action
Group.
Gay liberation represents the advent of another
oppressed minority group in America. But there is a
fundamental difference between the gay movement and
other minority protest movements. "What sets the
militant homosexuals apart from society," according to
Newsweek Magazine, "is not a matter of birth or ethnic
origin or philosophical convictions; it is a set of
attitudes and behavior patterns that many medical
authorities regard as literally sick."
Central to gay liberation is the idea that homosexuals
are normal people. The government and the psychiatric
establishment, according to gays, are the two
institutions most responsible for keeping homosexuals
from attaining a normal status.
The movement's primary goal with regard to the
government is the passage of laws that would permit
homosexual acts in private between consenting adults
(four states now have such laws). Nebraska currently has
severe sodomy laws, but the statues have not been
enforced for the past few years. Thus it seems realistic
for Nebraska to repeal its sodomy laws and permit
homosexual acts in private between two consenting
adults.
Gay libbers are also rightfully demanding an end to
discrimination in housing and employment A logical
way to accomplish this is to expand present laws against
discrimination in housing, public accomodations and
employment to include the term "sexual orientation."
The psychiatric community, which often regards
homosexuality as a sickness, probably presents a bigger
battle for gays. Yet gay liberation does have some allies.
Many sociologists reject the theory of homosexuality as
abherrant behavior and instead regard it as an accident
of the child rearing process or as an alternative life style.
However, there are some perplexing issues to create
an immage of normality. Certainly no one tries to raise
his children as homosexuals. In addition, some people
have asked the question: is gay really "good" for
millions of unhappy homosexuals and homosexually
inclined people who might want to change their sex lives
if they could?
The questions about homosexuality are many, the
answers few. The many issues about gay liberation will
require extensive study and debate.
Gary Seacrest
ipjggaajjaaaassiMaaatUUtaBBaaBaaMea
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'Hold that line! Hold that line!"
-....
'Hold that line! Hold that line!"
rv S
jeffrey hart
Here comes Teddy
The campaign being waged
for the Democratic nomination
by Senator Edward
Kennedy-and campaign it
assuredly is-bears an odd
resemblance to Richard
Nixon's campaign in late 1966
and early 1967. The off-year
election of 1966, in which
Nixon had campaigned
furiously for Republican
candidates, was a triumph for
the Party, but also for Nixon.
Surely he would now begin to
round up delegates and ice the
nomination.
No, said Nixon, and
declared he was going on a
six-month world tour. To his
intimates he said, "Let
Romney take the point," using
the familiar military
expression. George Romney,
then Governor of Michigan,
was a leader in the polls, Nixon
had had plenty of exposure
nationally, and there were
exciting new faces around like
Ronald Reagan and Charles
Percy. Nixon's calculation that
Romney would falter turned
out to be correct. By the time
of the New Hampshire primary
the Romney candidacy was
dead.
In the early running Teddy
Kennedy left the field to
Senator Muskie, though, unlike
Nixon, he had little choice in
the matter. Until
Chappaquiddick, Kennedy was
the odds-on tavorite. In the
wake of his behavior that
weekend, however, most of the
electorate would have viewed a
Kennedy candidacy as an
impossible outrage. Muskie
therefore emerged as the
front-runner, and the media
began discovering his
Lincolnesque qualities.
Richard Nixon once
remarked that he had learned
in 1962 in California that a
Republican could not win with
the Right alone, but that he
could not win without the
Right either. Similarly, a
Democrat cannot win without
the Left, even if he has the
solid center of the party.
Muskie's weakness is that he
has found no way to appeal to
the youth vote, the campus,
the intellectuals, the media, the
chic Left, or to those Left
Democratic wealthy types
whose money flows in direct
proportion to ideological
purity. Muskie, even as
Humphrey in 1968, is too
square-a "drug store liberal."
has been taking a variety of
very visible rhetorical
positions, championing relief
for Bangla Desh, urging the
students on to new fevers of
activism, telling the British to
get out of Ulster, gestating a
vast new scheme of socialized
medicine, denouncing the
Nixon Administration in harsh
terms, attacking the handling
of May Day rioters and so on.
Muskie's cautious temperament
forecloses tor him this political
route to high visibility.
Here is a possible
projection. In due course,
Muskie's strength will keep him
the front-runner. Such a
prospect will produce
defections on the Left, among
the factions enumerated above.
Eugene McCarthy will heave
into view, and there will be a
move toward a Fourth Party.
Under these circumstances,
Kennedy will be the only
candidate acceptable to all
factions-chic Left,
bread-and-butter liberals,
Richard Daley and George
Meany, intellectuals, media.
PAGE 4
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1971
