Michael Levin Why Homosexuality Is Abnormal

5240 Words21 Pages
Michael Levin
I Introduction
This essay defends the view that homosexuality is abnormal and hence undesirable - not because it is immoral or sinful, or because it weakens society or hampers evolutionary development, but for a purely mechanical reason. It is a misuse of bodily parts. Clear empirical sense attaches to the idea of ¡he use of such bodily

parts as genitals, the idea that they

*efor

some-

thing, and consequently to the idea of their misuse. I argue on grounds involving natural selection that misuse of bodily parts can with high probability be connected to unhappiness. I regard these matters as prolegomena to such

policy issues as the rights of homosexuals, the rights of those desiring not to associate with homosexuals, and…show more content…
Homosexuality is likely to cause unhappiness because it leaves unfulfi[ed an innate and innately rewarding desire. And should the reader 's environmentalism threaten to Bet the upper hand, let me remind him again of an unproblematic case. Lack of exercise is bad and even abnormal not only because it is unhealthy but also hcause one feels poorly without regular exercise. Nature made exercise rewarding

until recently, we had to exercise to survive. Creatures who found running after because, game unrewarding were eliminated. Laziness leaves unreaped the rewards nature has planted in exercise, even if the lazy man c¡¡nnor tell this

inrrospectively. If this is a correct description of the place oi exercise in human life, it is by the

same token e correct description of the place

of

heterosexuality.

It hardly needs saying, but perhaps I

should say it anyway, that this argument concerns tendencies and probabilities. Generalizations ebout

human affairs being notoriously "rue by and large and for the most part" only, saying that homosexuals are bound to be less happy than heterosexuals must be understood as short for
"Not coincidentally, a larger proportion of homosexuals will be unhappy than a corresponding selection of the heterosexual population." There are, after all, genuinely iolly fat men. To say that luiness leads to adverse affective consequences means that, because ofour
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    22 Michael Levin 1 Introduction This essay defends the view that homosexuality is abnormal and hence undesirable - not because it is immoral or sinful, or because it weakens society or hampers evolutionary development, but for a purely mechanical reason. It is a misuse of bodily parts. Clear empirical sense attaches to the idea of the use of such bodily parts as genitals, the idea that they are for something, and consequently to the idea of their misuse. I argue on grounds involving natural selection

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