I submitted this to the Michigan Daily on March 25, 2000. It was in response to Mike Carrier, "'U' class: Homosexuality is a 'learned' lifestyle," Michigan Daily 24 Mar. 2000: 4.
What exactly was the point of Mike Carrier’s viewpoint ("’U’ class: Homosexuality is a ‘learned’ lifestyle)?
For the sake of the argument, let’s assume that the critique by the American Family Association (AFA), who arranged for this piece to appear in the Daily, of English 317 has some validity. Carrier did not add to a discussion about this but instead inane logic to say that gays, lesbians, and bisexuals make a consciousness choice. The writer completely ignores the idea of the social construction of identities, a premise which this course is presumably based on. Instead of trying to critique the premise, however, Carrier resorts to saying that it would not make any sense to say Irish men have to learn how to be Irish men as this course is saying that gay men do. Actually, the overwhelming body of scholarship says that people do have to learn the customs and practices that often come to represent being a member of a community. The key to understanding this is separating the social identities from perceived —since nobody is inherently Irish or Swedish or what not- biological identities. And when did U.S. News and World Report become an infallible standard bearer? Carrier claims that is, probably in jest, but who is the audience? Who does he think has put this boring and tepid magazine on such a pedestal?
The answer to this question probably reveals a great deal about the criticisms of this class. A quick perusal of the AFA’s web site shows that the group is solidly fundamentalist and within the Christian Right. They believe that they are up against every powerful force in the world and thus associate everything from public universities to the mainstream media with an attack on their values and beliefs. Their cause is, in their own words, "to change the culture to reflect Biblical truth." With that outlook, they can not tolerate any discussion of supposed sinners that is not solely about condemnation. It is about imposing their values on others.
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