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FAMILY

By Leon Stevens

"Genotype" refers to the total expression of inborn genetic information. This year public

television's NOVA series featured a fascinating segment about the struggle of genotypes to preserve themselves. It cited recent studies of Indian temple monkeys which showed that the behavior of individual monkeys was governed by the likelihood of the continuation of their genetic make-ups.

For example, it was observed that dominent males would make vigorous attempts to

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destroy the young offspring of deceased males in order to cause the bereaved mothers to exhibit new mating gestures and responses. In this way they could maximize the proliferation who unsuccessfully resisted of their own genotypes. Females such infanticide, would then males as if instinctively trying to seek to mate with the murderous link their genes with the betteradapted genes of the surviving males.

Also, studies of what seems to be a universal incest avoidance that genes "know" that their among higher animals suggests chances of survival in a

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changing environment are better insured by a safe (but not drastic) degree of variation in their current arrangement. Kinship patterns and group loyalties are explainable preserve its own form. The imthrough the genotype's desire to plications of these phenomena and on the other, terrifying! are, on the one hand, interesting They suggest that such spectors as racism, nationalism and genocide are innate!

It is apparent, however, that even if this were the case, the preservation can be easily instinct for genetic selffooled. For example, studies of Israeli "kibbutizim" (collective farms) reveal that members of a "kibbutz" usually marry someone from another "kibbutz." This is attributed to the fact that children on a "kibbutz" are raised communally so that they subconsciously perceive each other as siblings, although they are genetically quite dissimilar. To avoid "incest" they court strangers to their respective farm communities. Interracial cooperation in the U.S. and other countries would indicate that physical proximity plus a shared common culture confuse and redirect instinctive genetic self-identification.

Genotypes compulsively (though somewhat blindly) preserve their internal status while endeavoring to restrict or exterminate competing

genotypes. This accounts for the double standard of morality in Western civilization including such events as the Jewish and Armenian holocausts during past wars. It also explains seemingly contradictory biblical injunctions: first, not to kill (meaning "murder other Israelites") and second, to slay all Canaanites (geneticallydistant entities). Televised sex and violence (the public's choice) is, no doubt, traceable to inborn genetic preoccupation with copulating and killing. A recent sampling by Dr. Joyce Brothers showed that men think about sex on an average of once every five minutes! Hebrew, a highly complex language, has only one regular verb: "katal" which means "kill!"

Recent accurate observations of primate behavior (including our own) such as those just mentioned, carry within them extraordinary ramifications for our community. Efficient transportation and communication in our life-time have created a homosexual super-community as has never existed. Sexual alliances, intimacies and familiarity through frequent association all account for strong self-identification. Sexual continuity in gay society has gradually fused an extensive network of complex and farreaching loyalties. This rapidlygrowing profound mutuality is responsible for the sudden unexpected response of

heretofore non-political gays to the Anita Bryant adventure. Outof-the-closet gays comprise (whether we like it or not) an

roy)

enormous extended family. Gay gatherings, be they hostile, boring or wonderful, are all familial in character. Many gays are finding it difficult to accept that although they might feel sexually or emotionally rejected by their homophile peers, their links to gay society are stronger than their bonds with non-gays. Clearly a "gut" mechanism dominates intra-gay exchange. One need not be a scholar of Latin to trace the etymology of "familiar."

In tribal societies, (only a thousand years ago for most of us), infighting occurs only as group members fail to identify family ties. When bands or villages split, (as a study of the Brazilian Yanomamo demonstrated), distant villages lose their confederate status. Internecine warfare and even the massacre of entire villages results.

There can be no questioning the fact that we confer familial attachments upon close friends. Figurative use of "family" for comrades may ironically represent literal subconscious interrelationships. As Mary Tyler Moore remarked on her last show, "What is a family, anyway, but a bunch of people who make you feel loved and less alone?" Of course, small "families" do not distinguish gay groups. What distinguishes gay interrelationships is that gays tend to make long-range familial associations and readily identify their social microcosm as a huge clan or tribe. Last year, when High Gear interviewed three black gay men, it was surprised to learn that they iden-

I'm not sure

But i think this ARTICLE explains

Why I'm the way i am!!

tified more closely with their gayness than blackness! People who comwith their 'plain of manifest "cliquishness" are naive to think it can be otherwise. Furthermore, even cold or unrewarding sexual relationships cause one to feel biologically bound to other gay people. One must protect an investment of which she is not consciously aware. Only in extreme and unstable circumstances does this tendency not prevail.

This phenomenon may apply to the monogamy vs. promiscuity controversy as well. Widespread polygony, polyandry, concubinage, prostitution, adultery, wished-for infidelity, divorce and various other kinds of non-monogamy betray a fundamental human rebellion against permanent pairing. The popularity of sexual contracts (marriage) among diverse cultures is interpreted by modern anthropologists as economic rather than intuitive. A bit of Hollywood Squares trivia several months ago established that married couples who talked "baby talk" to each other had more durable relationships than those who did not. Could this mean that familial feelings take over where sex leaves off? Likely!

In the near future we can expect to see accelerated infragay "nepotism" and community self-defense with a voracity which will surely amaze us. All this because in deference to hitherto unidentified but powerful inner motivators, we simply CAN'T HELP IT!

If you know of a Gay news item in Ohio or wish to advertise in high Gear, please call Cleveland: Dan Miecznikowski 631-9275 or Terry McCormick 226-2543Akron: Steve Jobe 733-5612