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From: brenner@aruba.DEC
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: re: thoughts on desperation (homosexuality and sin)
Message-ID: <1401@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Jun-84 10:19:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: decwrl.1401
Posted: Tue Jun 12 10:19:29 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 13-Jun-84 06:51:47 EDT
Organization: DEC Engineering Network
Lines: 34


Oh, this Mr. Sargent...where do I even start? Would this man even listen to 
hundreds of well-adjusted gays and lesbians jumping up and down and screaming 
that he's wrong, wrong, wrong? Mr. Sargent would just write us all off as 
having been so well brainwashed into thinking we should be gay that we can't 
see what *he* can see (with the aid of just one book!), that we must have had a 
traumatic childhood experience and everyone deep down is supposed to be 
straight...

Well, I gotta say something even if it won't move Mr. Sargent, because I don't 
want the rest of the net seeing his point of view going uncontested. Mr. 
Sargent, I am a lesbian because I am a lesbian. Period. No childhood traumas 
with MOTOS...as a matter of fact, I had a pretty normal and even quiet 
childhood; I even dated a few boys, so the theory that I'm a dyke because men 
turned me down goes out the window for me. As does the theory that I was forced 
into being gay because everyone looked at me and put me into a stereotype: I 
violate many parts of the lesbian stereotype--I often wear makeup and a skirt, 
I have both male and female friends, I don't look masculine at all, etc. We gay 
people are a very diverse lot, you know (or maybe many of you, like Mr. 
Sargent, don't know; let me assure you that such is the case.)

Mr. Sargent had a personal problem about his own masculinity. He solved it. 
Fine. But then he extrapolates into theories about everyone's masculinity or 
femininity. NOT FINE AT ALL! The opposite of masculine is *not* homosexual; gay 
men are not failed straights. Similarly, the opposite of feminine is *not* 
homosexual; lesbians are *not* failed straights. Gay is *not* an also-ran, gay 
is a healthy attribute of a significant portion of the human race. 

Auurrrgh! What else can I say??!??! Mr. Sargent's ignorance has me worried 
about the deafness of the rest of the audience. Please prove me wrong.

					Ellen Brenner
	
					...decvax!decwrl!rhea!aruba!brenner