Homosexuality: The right to be wrong

Abstract

It is my contention that a fixed or exclusive homosexual in our contemporary society is wrong meaning, inefficient, self-defeating, and emotionally disturbed but that he has an inalienable right, as a human being, to be wrong, and should never be persecuted or punished for his errors. Before, however, I establish the right of the homosexual to be wrong, it will be necessary for me to demonstrate, with data stronger than mere opinion, that Sxed deviants are mistaken and self-sabotaging in their behavior. For there also is some evidence that would at least partially indicate that homosexuals are not necessarily neurotic or psychotic. Thus, several civilized and savage peoples of the world, especially the ancient Greeks, fully accepted overt homosexuality; and some of these peoples even seemed to believe that a man who did not engage in sex activity with other males was something of an anomaly. Moreover, as I and other writers have recently noted (Ellis, 1960, 1962a), there is nothing intrinsically immoral or wicked about homosexuality: because, instead of being innately born either a heterosexual or a homosexual animal, man is essentially a plurisexual creature, who easily can be conditioned to copulate with males, females, lower animals, and even inanimate objects. If anything, as many sex authorities have indicated (Ellis, 1963; Freud, 1938; Stekel, 1934), man is biologically inclined to be bisexual rather than monosexual; so that, theoretically, anyone who is fixated exclusively on heterosexual or homosexual relations is fetishistically deviated. Why, then, do I and practically all other psychotherapists (except, of course, therapists who are themselves fixed homosexuals) keep insisting that males and females who desire only members of their own sex as sexual partners are wrong or emotionally disturbed? For several reasons: 1. Whether we like it or not, we live in contemporary Western civilization, and not in ancient Greece nor in any other culture where homosexuality is fully accepted. However foolish it may be for our society tO ban homosexual relations between consenting adults, the