{"id":1454,"date":"2018-08-07T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2018-08-07T13:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/?p=1454"},"modified":"2019-11-15T15:11:57","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T19:11:57","slug":"gay-and-lesbian-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/consistent-life.org\/blog\/index.php\/2018\/08\/07\/gay-and-lesbian-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Right-to-Life Issues in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

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Jeff Koloze<\/p><\/div>\n

by Jeff Koloze<\/p>\n

Note: The post is based on a paper that was to be presented at the University Faculty for Life conference in 2018. The complete paper and bibliography <\/em>can be found on LifeIssues.net<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now retired from his most recent position as associate professor at South University, Dr. Koloze continues teaching at various colleges and universities in the metropolitan Cleveland, Ohio area, including Lorain County Community College, North Central State College, and DeVry University.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

What is the impact of the gay and lesbian movement on the life issues of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia?\u00a0 On abortion, I discuss Chelsey Johnson\u2019s Stray City<\/em> (2018).\u00a0 Infanticide is considered in Angelina Weld Grimk\u00e9\u2019s \u201cThe Closing Door\u201d (1919).\u00a0 On euthanasia, there are several novels regarding AIDS patients and the absence of euthanasia as a solution to the pain and loss of dignity created by the disease.\u00a0 Finally, I offer questions from a right-to-life perspective.<\/p>\n

Abortion<\/h3>\n

Gay and lesbian literature provides several interesting passages.<\/p>\n

\"\"For example, Chelsey Johnson\u2019s Stray City<\/em> is a remarkable deflection from the the aggressively pro-abortion perspective commonly found in the gay and lesbian community.\u00a0 While Angela Morales, the lesbian main character, cannot account for her attraction to the eminently masculine and heterosexual Ryan, she has sex with him enough to become pregnant.<\/p>\n

Reminiscent of Hemingway\u2019s famous short story about abortion<\/a>, the following passages reflect Angela\u2019s anguish in choosing either abortion or carrying the pregnancy to term.\u00a0 In this first passage, Angela recounts her experience with a Planned Parenthood clinic:<\/p>\n

The receptionist suggested I bring a friend or partner for support.\u00a0 I said, \u201cI\u2019ll be fine.\u201d\u00a0 I wanted it out, quick.\u00a0 The sooner it was gone, the more over<\/em> this would all be.\u00a0 I was done with affairs.\u00a0 I was done with faking it.\u00a0 I was done with secrets.\u00a0 It was time to clean up my mess, all by myself.\u00a0 In five days I would expel this last trace of Ryan from my life.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t even need to know.\u00a0 No one did.\u00a0 I would box up the whole weird affair and store it in the farthest corner of the attic.\u00a0 Better yet, recycle it.\u00a0 (italics in original)<\/p>\n

In this next passage, a change in Angela\u2019s attitude slowly emerges, when she perceives the barest of fetological facts:<\/p>\n

I borrowed Summer\u2019s dog-eared purple copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves<\/em>.\u00a0 The embryo was probably the size of a lentil or maybe a pea.\u00a0 That was nothing!\u00a0 A mere legume.\u00a0 It hardly even existed.\u00a0 Five days couldn\u2019t go quickly enough.\u00a0 I was seized by the urge to eradicate, eradicate.<\/p>\n

Angela reviews her circumstances and reaches an ineluctable conclusion:<\/p>\n

That night in bed, I lay on my back and rested my hands on my abdomen.\u00a0 Of course it was too early to feel anything.\u00a0 But I knew it was in there.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou and me,\u201d I whispered in the dark.\u00a0 Two selves.\u00a0 \u201cDo yu think we could do this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Infanticide<\/h3>\n
\"\"

Lorna Raven Wheeler<\/p><\/div>\n

Lorna Raven Wheeler has adroitly connected a significant passage in her research on an infanticide short story by Angelina Weld Grimk\u00e9, \u201cThe Closing Door\u201d (1919), with the gay and lesbian movement.\u00a0 Grimk\u00e9\u2019s short story concerns the infanticide of a newborn whose mother has learned about the lynching of her brother.\u00a0 Speaking of the main character Agnes, Wheeler writes:<\/p>\n

While she may be nearly singular in her decision to commit infanticide, her anguish is the anguish of black women in the face of this kind of violence [the lynching of her brother].\u00a0 Her emotion is read in the staccato of her exclamations<\/p>\n

\u201cYes!\u2014I!\u2014I!\u2014An instrument!\u2014another one of the many! a colored woman\u2014doomed!\u2014cursed!\u2014put here!\u2014willing or unwilling!\u2014for what?\u2014to bring children here\u2014men children\u2014for the sport\u2014the lust\u2014of possible orderly mobs\u2014who go about things\u2014in an orderly manner\u2014on Sunday mornings!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Angelina Grimk\u00e9<\/p><\/div>\n

Arguably, this passage, not the description of the lynching, is the most important speech of the story.\u00a0 Certainly, it is the most emotional.\u00a0 The punctuated outbursts and the use of the dash and the subsequent lower-case phrases present Agnes\u2019 horror and anguish clearly.\u00a0 Even more interesting are Grimk\u00e9\u2019s words themselves.\u00a0 This passage is the key to Grimk\u00e9’s take on birth control<\/em>.\u00a0 She argues, through Agnes, that it is the reproductive \u201cinstrument,\u201d the mother<\/em> of \u201cmen children\u201d who, among women, suffers the brunt of lynching.\u00a0 (italics in original).<\/p>\n

Euthanasia<\/h3>\n

What\u2019s striking in the gay and lesbian literature is the absence of assisted suicide, physician-assisted suicide (or its more accurate form, physician-assisted death), euthanasia, or any variant.\u00a0 It can be presumed, therefore, that gay and lesbian fiction neither endorses nor suggests euthanasia as a recourse for persons suffering from AIDS.\u00a0 Rather, gay and lesbian fiction illustrates not only compassion between persons with same-sex attraction whose sexual lives are affected by AIDS, but also hope that that the time remaining for the person who has AIDS would be maximized so that the partners would enjoy each other\u2019s company for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

\"\"One scene in Tim Murphy\u2019s Christodora<\/em> (2016) illustrates these generalizations well.\u00a0 In the following passage, Hector expresses his anger at his lover Ricky, for not seeking treatment:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing with you, Ricky,\u201d he continued to himself, mumbling parts aloud, \u201cyou just didn\u2019t want to live.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I say fuck you, as harsh as that sounds.\u00a0 Because you didn\u2019t even care that there were two people involved, not just you.\u00a0 You put me through that for, unh, what would that have been, from about 1989 when I first knew until \u201992.\u00a0 You wouldn\u2019t get tested, you wouldn\u2019t go on meds until they forced you on meds in the hospital and it was too late \u2026.] and then I had to watch you die, like I didn\u2019t have better things to do that year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right-to-Life Questions<\/h3>\n

These themes can be applied as questions to any work of literature, especially ones which address the life issues.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. How does the literature treat the pricelessness of human life?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Gay and lesbian literature doesn\u2019t deny this principle.\u00a0 Many narratives support this principle; otherwise, the literature would offer numerous accounts of the degradation and killing of human beings.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Does the literature recognize that the individual is a being with inherent rights, the paramount one being the right to life?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Most gay and lesbian literature acknowledges the importance of the individual and his or her right to exist.\u00a0 Rarely does gay and lesbian literature speak in generalities about love for humanity; rather, it\u2019s affection, friendship, or love (whether erotic or one of the other categories) of a particular person.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Does the literary work comport with the view that unborn, newborn, and mature human life has an inherent right to exist?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        This can only be temporarily answered \u201cyes\u201d here (see my full paper<\/a>). More material needs to be investigated to see if the gay and lesbian literature answers this question sufficiently.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. When they are faced with their mortality, do the characters come to a life-affirming perspective?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Persons dying of AIDS must not only face their mortality, but do so often under their own pain and the emotional pain of those who love them.<\/p>\n

          Some gay and lesbian literature, especially that involving the death of a lover or general reflection on AIDS affecting the entire gay community, often illustrates characters who desire not merely genital activity, but authentic love.\u00a0 This search is a common theme in the literature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            by Jeff Koloze Note: The post is based on a paper that was to be presented at the University Faculty for Life conference in 2018. The complete paper and bibliography can be found on LifeIssues.net. Now retired from his most recent position as associate professor at South University, Dr. Koloze continues teaching at various… <\/p>\n