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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1988)
NATURE OR NURTURE Sponsored by the International Lesbian and Gay Association and held in Amsterdam, the international conference titled Homosexuality Beyond Disease focussed on mental health, politics and law. B Y M A R K ur “ layer o f civilization” is still very exception. However, events have transpired in thin, cautioned the deputy mayor o f other countries which show that most o f the Amsterdam at the opening ceremonies o f the world has not passed beyond the conception o f international conference titled “ Homosexuality homosexuality as a disease; these events Beyond Disease.” But the deputy mayor’ s charged the conference with a sense o f urgency. warning sounded almost out o f place and un Sponsored by the International Lesbian and necessary. After all. the conference had Gay Association and organized by the Gay and attracted more than 200 academics and profes Lesbian Studies Department o f the University sionals from at least four continents as well as a o f Utrecht, the conference ran from Dec. 10 whole battery o f high-ranking Dutch officials. through 12 and focused on one particularly And with the conference taking place in threadbare layer o f civilization: the World Amsterdam’ s poshest hotel, directly across Health Organization’ s (W H O ) classification o f from the Royal Palace, it was easy to believe homosexuality as a diseased mental condition. that Holland’ s tolerance was the rule, not the This classification has been used to rationalize a O Freedom is a dangerous choice Some o f the women — in concert with the lesbian-rights organization in Lima, Grupo de Autoconciencia de Lesbianas Feministas (G A L F ) — wrote letters o f protest to the g o v ernment. These letters, as well as G A L F ’ s other B Y M A R K S C H O O F S activities, represent important first steps o f the ne by one they were shoved out o f the bar inchoate lesbian and gay rights movement in and into the crowded street and the glare Peru. The participants in the Amsterdam con o f television lights. Terrified o f being recog ference, deeply moved by the sight o f the nized. the women shielded their faces with their women cowering from the television cameras, hands or covered their heads with sweaters or sent a collective letter o f protest to the president jackets. o f Peru. G A L F requests others to do the same; The crowd mocked and jeered at the women send a copy to G A L F as well. who were being arrested, and gave leering com G A L F suggests the following text: ments and whistles to any woman who was Nos dirigimos a usted con la finalidad de wearing a skirt Lven the television camera expresarle nuestra preocupación frente a los hechos harassed the women in skirts, zooming in for ocurridos el dia 06 de junio de 1987 en el local close-ups o f the shapeliest bare legs. ubicado en el Jr. Huaraz 518 — Breña: The film was a Peruvian news clip o f a police La detención ilegal de 70 ciudadanas quienes raid on a lesbian bar in Lima. It served as a vivid fueron puestas en libertad y obligadas a transitar sin demonstration o f the realities o f homophobia. protección alguna durante las horas del toque de Rebecca Seville, a Peruvian lesbian activist queda poniendo in peligro sus vidas; la actitud who was arrested at the disco, gave a presenta defamatona del Canal 2 de televisión pues su version tion at the Amsterdam Conference which told periodística no se ajusta a la realidad. Por tanto le solicitamos: what the film did not show O When the police raided the bar on June 6, 1987. they kept 70 women trapped inside for for more than an hour until a television crew arrived, whereupon the police forced the w o men out o f the disco. In Peru, attitudes toward homosexuality are vehemently hostile, so most o f the women were terrified o f being recognized by their friends, employers or, especially, families. The television station aired the video clip three times- twice that week and once again after the feminist movement in Peru wrote a letter protesting the homophobic attitudes o f the television station. The women had to endure other forms o f abuse as well. While they were being led to the police bus, they were not only verbally mocked and degraded, but shoved and hit. Some were thrown to the ground When they arrived at the police station, their troubles were far from over. There they were sexually harassed and detained until 1 a m. At that time they were given the choice o f leaving or being transferred to the custody o f the police division against terrorism In this case, freedom was a dangerous choice. Lima was then under a standing curfew enforced from I until 5 a m. Anyone caught on the street between those hours was shot on sight. In spite o f the danger, most o f the women chose to leave and hide or sit near the police station until the curfew broke N o one took legal action after the raid be cause Peru does not recognize the right to have homosexual relations Attempting legal redress probably would have accomplished nothing other than to incite legal and social reprisals from a government infamous for its human rights violations. Respeto al derecho de reunion de las personas - ; r — . — i * " . S i t i l L V * t S ' A t * . i 1 1 1.', ‘-'y• sexual policiales responsables de estos hechos — Respeto al derecho de honor e imagen consagrados en vuestra constitución de parte de los medios de comunicación. Translation: W e address you with the purpose o f expressing our concern about the events that occurred on June 6, 1987 in the establishment located at 518 Juarez — Brení: The illegal detention o f 70 women who were set free and forced to leave the premises o f the police station without any protection whatsoever during the curfew, thus putting their lives in danger; and also the news coverage by channel 2 o f the event which not only was defamatory but also did not do justice to the truth. For these reasons we call for: — The free association o f people without dis crimination. regardless o f their sexual orientation. — The investigation and sanction o f the police responsible for these actions. — Media respect for the rights o f honor and self dignity enshnned in your constitution. Addresses: Sr. Presidente de Peru Dr Alan Garcia Perez Palacio de Gobierno Lim a. PERU G ALF Casilla 110390 Lim a 11, PERU • S C H O O F S multitude o f injustices, from electroshock therapy in the past to modem immigration laws. T w o segments o f the conference, “ Homosexu ality and Mental Health” and “ Theories o f Homosexuality,” criticized the illness model o f homosexuality and proposed more humane and scientific understandings. The third segment o f the conference, “ Homosexuality: Politics and Law,” explored strategies for aligning govern ment policy with these new understandings. rofessor Joop van Londen, president o f the W H O ’ s parliamentary body, gave a lecture which stressed the positive prospects for the future. Although the W H O ’ s next disease classification manual will not be formally adopted until 1993, it is already being field tested — and the proposed manual does not list homosexuality as an illness. “ There are no scientific reasons whatsoever to call homo sexuality a disease,” van Londen stated. “ But health is more than the absence o f dis ease,” he continued. Health includes leading a full cultural life, and if societies allow homophobia to persist, then these societies risk injuring the mental health o f their lesbian and gay citizens. Van Londen concluded by pro posing that governments go beyond mere toler ance and set an example for their populations by becoming “ homo-friendly.” Every lecturer agreed that culture influences the expressions o f one’ s sexuality, whether homosexual or heterosexual, but disagreement raged over the power and profundity o f that influence. Most o f the debate centered around the terms “ essentialism” and “ construe* tionalism,” five-dollar words that meat», basi cally, nature and nurture. Is homosexuality an inborn, essential feature o f a person’ s nature*? O r is it instead a construct built through the V.ViV-:; interaction o f an individual with his or her environment? The question is an old one, and emotionally charged. Many people oppose even asking it, on the fear that if a cause for homosexuality is found, those in power wift use that knowledge to eliminate gay people forever. Journal o f Homosexuality editor John De Cecco did not ' actually condemn the inquiry, but he did voice the caveat on the minds o f many at the confer ence: “ The laboratory is never as far from the ovens o f World War II as one might like to think.” The lecturers well understood this connec tion , and did not focus so much on looking for a cause as on how particular people in particular cultures come to identify themselves. Professor Vem Builough o f the United States outlined a history o f theories about homosexuality and ^ noted that the word — and therefore the very concept — “ homosexuality” is barely one hundred years old. This is not to say that before the late nine- teenth century women did not have sex with women or men with men. Rather, the lecturers stressed the extravagant differences between & • how people who have same-gender sexual reten tions have thought o f themselves. In a talk dur ing the pre-conference. Tore Hakansson o f Sweden reported that many Native American tribes revered “ berdaches,” men who cross- dressed and had sexual relations with other ■Y#i- men. However, both Hakansson and Professor Terry Tafoya, a Taos Pueblo Indian from the , \ United States, pointed out that this statement misrepresents the berdache. Even though berdaches were what we would consider biological males, they and their cultures con- P sidered them members o f a third gender. Hence, a berdache never engaged in sex with another berdache — only with male-identified men or, in some cultures, with female- identified women. The point is that what modem Westerners may view as “ homo sexuality” is given a completely different interpretation by those involved. Tafoya compared the Western model o f the homosexual-heterosexual continuum to a stick. According to our way o f understanding, no matter what your sexuality — homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual — you are still some where on the stick. W e need to conceptualize human identity in terms o f a circle, Tafoya asserted, for in contrast to a stick a circle has no endpoints. A circle is a metaphor for the whole. Therefore people are not stuck between only two possibilities, but free to be any o f an infinite number o f identities. Although these theories seem to veer o f f into the abstract, their consequences are real. West ern A ID S researchers often ask health officials o f Third World nations about the incidence o f homosexuality, only to be met with indignant denials. According to Tafoya, Dutch educator Jan Husken and others, these officials may well be telling the truth — as they see it. Husken related his own lively example. After having sex with a Moroccan man, Husken asked his partner about homosexuality in Morocco. “ There is none,” his partner replied. “ W ell,” Husken said, ” what about us?” “ That’ s not the same thing,” countered the Moroccan. “ W e’ re friends.” were culturally bound, then we would expect it not to appear in certain societies, especially those like our own which strongly condemn it. Although not himself a strict essentialist, Dr. Kenneth Plummer o f the United Kingdom pointed out that constructionalist theories sim ply do not resonate with the experiences o f lesbians and gay men. Studying the biographies o f lesbians and gay men reveals over and over that g a y people knew they were homosexual early in their lives. Usually children’s vocabularies lack the word “ gay” or “ homo sexual” ; hence “ different” is used most often to describe the feeling o f growing up gay. “ I knew that somehow I was different from other boys and girls” is a theme whose variations recur in thousands o f life stories, and essentialist proponents cite this common theme to cast doubt upon theories claiming that homosexual ity is socio-psychologically constructed. Whether one believes that being gay is a matter o f nature or nurture, the real task, ac cording to Dr. Michael Ross o f Australia, is to understand our own paradigms and their conse quences. The way science thinks about gay people profoundly influences the way gay people think about themselves. In the past, gay and lesbian scientists have teoded merely to react to old negative models; homosexuality is not a sin or a sickness, they