After the mention of the homophobic passage in The Gate To Women's
Country yesterday I ran home and flipped through the whole book again,
which I read quite a while before I came out, and never remembered any
mention of queers. Of course I was at the time annoyed with the
biological determinism. Looking at the book again her treatment of
homosexuality quite threw me. Not only does she posit a simple biological
cause for homosexuality (by the way I HATE this word), mentioned the
elimination of queers without even a hint that this was a form of genocide
and inappropriate, but she also manages to mingle the issues of pedophilia
and homosexuality. This is, of course, a classic form of homophobia,
particularly against gay men, one that villifies queers and queerness by
association with crimes against children. And, of course, one exposed as
a lie by respected research.
Yes, Tepper is creating a world, and every element of that world does not
necessarily reflect her own world view, it is a thought experiement.
However raising such an important and contentious issue as the origin of
queerness and the genocide of queers without even batting a literary eye
is terribly irresponsible. Absolutely no discussion, let alone criticism,
of the elimination of queers occurs in Gate. And neither the passage in
question nor the "history" it refers to are important to the rest of the
novel. It is gratuitous, AND handled badly.
The only need for the passage on queers in Gate is to support the
underlying theory of heterosexuaity in the book, the undeniable,
instinctual, animal need for heterosexual sex which the characters exhibit
and much of the plot turns on. And of course the ways in which many of
the characters decisions and actions are driven by their uncontrollable
heterosexual urges relates back to the biological essentialism of the
book.
On the flip side I stronly recommend a story called Coccoon which deals
with the question If there was a biological cause of homosexuality
discovered what would happen. It's a sophisticated and complex look at
the question in a near future society. I think it's by Greg Bear, but
someone correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm certainly interested in what other people think of this.
Robin Gordon
--------------------------------------
"I view it as something of a nightmare
that the sodomites are so brazen."
Bigot Jesse Helms
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