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Gay Peoples Chronicle

THE THOUGHT CONNECTION

"LAVENDER ECOLOGY"

By CHRISTINE BURTON

I observe a tragic dichotomy between life as we experience it and the rhetoric we hear about it. For thousands of years our religion has told us: 1. God is the sole creator of all creattures; 2. It is God's will that only heterosexuals may enjoy sex, which must take place only within a marriage that has been approved by organized religion.

Confession: I am a TV nature program addict. I've learned that animals create themselves as they adapt to their environment. Therefore I disbelieve No. 1 above. Which leads me to take No. Z above not too seriously.

While reading about the will of God in the Bible, as well as in the writings of highly regarded theologians,

observe that people spend most of their time getting along the best they can, never mind the will of God.

It seems to me that life is like a weed patch, everything growing helter skelter. If God had anything to do with how the seeds got there, by wind or bird droppings, you'd never know it. All plants must grow the best they can without God's protection from insects, fungi and plant diseases, to say nothing of the nibblings of a stray horse, or a dog spraying his urine.

Everything that lives interacts with all other living things. When western ranchers begin to eliminate coyotes, they are annoyed by an overabundance of rabbits. All life evolved on the same planet, therefore we really need snakes, tigers, mosquitoes, butterflies, alfalfa, loco weeds, termites, whales, mistletoe, and every one of the other thousands of lifeforms. The environmentalist does not try to eliminate anything that exists.

Not so, the Fundamentalist. Without study or search for truth, he destroys the fossils that confirm evolution, which he disputes. Without investigating the nature of the human species he develops political power in order to confine human behavior within his own gnarled notions of morality. If he could, he would exter-

minate all lesbian women and gay men.

If we accept the premise that nature works out its own relations between organisms and their environment

cannot logically suggest that God arranges the interdependence between people and their institutions. However it is obvious that lesbian women and gay men have an ecological niche in society. Without our cultural influence, the humanization of the species, which is an ongoing evolutionary process, would be impeded. Lesbian women and gay men are the cutting edge of cultural evolution.

pairing of one male and one female living with their progeny. But theirs was not a relationship. They had roles and traditional rules that kept them separate.

The base for the relationship concept was laid when the Women's Movement raised the

consciousness of women, who formerly had been but appendages of men. Large numbers of women became feminists. Many feminists realized they were lesbians. They paired into a social structure for which they had no model. They explored the dynamics of two mature, egual, autonomous humans bound together by sexual and

"Our Constitution grants to all citizens the right

to pursue happiness. There is no greater happiness

than to love and to be loved."

When land is used for agricultural purposes, the soil becomes impacted. Plowing loosens and aerates it so that seeds can germinate and young plants can thrive. When organized religion lays down its rules for human behavior, the culture becomes believes rigid--everyone

there is only one proper way to behave. Human freedom is diminished, people become destructively critical of one another, creativity withers at its roots and joy dies. The culture becomes suffocated. Plowing is needed. Lesbian women and gay men with their freedom from sexual conventions are the only ones who can do it.

Before the development of agriculture, women and men lived segregated lives within the tribe. The first agriculturists were women. When men dominated that activity, the idea of the auclear family was born: the

emotional intimacies Wi a social group that did not have the ancient focus of the child.

It was an idea whose time had come. Ignoring ecclesiastical ritual and clergy approval, heterosexual couples began to enter into relationships. Relationships have caught on until now organized religion sees they are losing their control over private lives. The Fundamentalists are trying to use government to shore up male dominance. They prefer the unequal roles, which destroy the only climate within which a relationship can exist.

The relationship recognizes that both parties have equal rights to self-expression and the freedom to grow individually. This cannot help but improve the quality of humanity. It is an evolutionary upgrading for men and women of whichever sexu-

August 1986

al persuasion. And for children, because the liberated parents then recognize that each child has the right to develop as a unique individual. The milieu in which a relationship thrives is one in which love is self-fulfilling for both partners.

Our Constitution grants to all citizens the right to pursue happiness. There is no greater happiness than to love and to be loved. The need for it is so imperative that without it the spirit dies. Any lesbian woman or gay man, living in the dark tunnel of isolation, who looks up to perceive in the eyes or the voice of another the prospect of life's most intense joy, must adjust to the dazzling light of their own new birth. The knowledge that one is treasured by another, thought about and longed for, brings a healthy consciousness of self and of being rooted in humanity. Each one of the trillions of cells in the human body and brain resonates with a sense of union with the loved one. Now, colors are more vivid, bird songs are sweeter and courage is stronger.

A succesful relationship demands the activity of the intelligence, bone-clean honesty, self-discipline, mutual respect and generosity in communicating love. Whether living together or apart, those involved in a relationship find it a difficult social structure, one that requires constant exploration and creativity in order to fulfill the needs of both partners equally. But in doing so, they are creating a paradise that straight society would never be able to fashion for itself.

We lesbian women and gay men have an ecological responsibility to cut the sharp edges of social and sexual conventions so that cultural evolution can pursue its natural tendency. Those who would remove us from the social scene are but preventing the humanization of their own lives. All the things that all of us want: beauty, truth, freedom and love, are not possible to any of us unless life is free to be lived according to its own nature.

ANDREW PETER BEEBE, PH.D.

PSYCHOLOGIST

(216) 642-2287

2460 FAIRMOUNT BLVD.

SUITE 323

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OHIO 44106

(216) 229-4290

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personal introductions

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