Moral Philosophy
Homosexuality in Modern American Culture: Understanding, Reconciling, Resolving
Samuel Nze
Contemporary Moral Issues
Sister Marian Brady
Fall 2012
Homosexuality is a contemporary moral issue in modern America. It is also a controversial one. Homosexuality simply defined is the situation wherein an individual prefers to have sexual relations with members of the individual’s own sex. Homosexuality applies to male and female, and the acts considered homosexual are not delimited to sexual intercourse alone. Homosexuality is controversial in contemporary politics. Specifically, liberal politicians are of the view that homosexuals should be allowed to get married, especially since their homosexuality is a natural situation. Conservatives on the other hand are more inclined to believe that homosexuality is chosen by the individual and should be discouraged. Freedom of choice, according to Gonsalves (1989), includes both the will and the intellect of the individual and is not brought on by forces external to them. When homosexuality is called a choice, it becomes clear then that homosexuals are willful perverts who are free to be heterosexual – which is the conservative norm – but instead proceed to be homosexual. This implies that homosexuals do not embrace self control and are not willing to play by social rules, and so must be sanctioned for their conscious choice. The flip-side view is that homosexuals are born that way (cf Dallas, 2004), because of genetic proclivities to same-sex physiological characteristics. If they are born so, it means that they do not freely choose their behavior but find themselves acting in a homosexual manner because they cannot help themselves. If they indeed cannot help themselves, liberal politicians propose that government help them by using the laws of the land to say it is alright for them to be gay and act on their homosexual desires. The foregoing is a deterministic paradigm, as opposed to the free-will paradigm in
Samuel Nze
Contemporary Moral Issues
Sister Marian Brady
Fall 2012
Homosexuality is a contemporary moral issue in modern America. It is also a controversial one. Homosexuality simply defined is the situation wherein an individual prefers to have sexual relations with members of the individual’s own sex. Homosexuality applies to male and female, and the acts considered homosexual are not delimited to sexual intercourse alone. Homosexuality is controversial in contemporary politics. Specifically, liberal politicians are of the view that homosexuals should be allowed to get married, especially since their homosexuality is a natural situation. Conservatives on the other hand are more inclined to believe that homosexuality is chosen by the individual and should be discouraged. Freedom of choice, according to Gonsalves (1989), includes both the will and the intellect of the individual and is not brought on by forces external to them. When homosexuality is called a choice, it becomes clear then that homosexuals are willful perverts who are free to be heterosexual – which is the conservative norm – but instead proceed to be homosexual. This implies that homosexuals do not embrace self control and are not willing to play by social rules, and so must be sanctioned for their conscious choice. The flip-side view is that homosexuals are born that way (cf Dallas, 2004), because of genetic proclivities to same-sex physiological characteristics. If they are born so, it means that they do not freely choose their behavior but find themselves acting in a homosexual manner because they cannot help themselves. If they indeed cannot help themselves, liberal politicians propose that government help them by using the laws of the land to say it is alright for them to be gay and act on their homosexual desires. The foregoing is a deterministic paradigm, as opposed to the free-will paradigm in
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