Sociologist Attacks “Homosexual” Label
by Montreal (CP)
The increasing awareness of homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle and the current trend by behavioral scientists to “label” sexual attitudes under general terms came under fire this week from an American sociologist. Homosexuality is real, but the homosexual is an invention,” Edward Sagarin, professor of sociology at City College of New York, told delegates to the 69th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. “It is an invention believed in so thoroughly by some people that they become what they were improperly tagged as being.” he said. Prof. Sagarin said the current trend in society to soft-pedal “deviant behavior” and mask it under the guise of awareness will do little to alleviate some of the problems associated with sexuality.
And definitions. he, said, only obscure the difference between those who are strongly inclined in homosexuality from those with a passing. casual and often secondary interest. “There is the great gamble that social scientists are taking today with increasing callousness and irresponsibility with the lives of others. “The increasing acceptance of persons in the homosexual life by their families, heterosexual friends and employers: the decrease of hostility in the public media and the opportunities for social encounters under favorable conditions appear not to have diminished the self-mockery, anger, promiscuity and other systems of mental disorder.” he said. Homosexuality, Professor Sagarin said, should not be considered as a mode of behavior or even a problem. The real problem involves the “malintegration” of a large sector of society and the nature of the social system that produces individuals who will not. or are unable. to conform to the “norm.” Prof. Sagarin also said that the greatest renunciation of personal freedom occurs when a person accepts homosexual identity because in doing so one becomes prisoner of that identity and resistant to change and development.
The out-of-the-closet mentality then serves as a vehicle for further restrictions, he said. “The ultimate freedom of a human being is to be free to become what he chooses and wishes to become, restrained only by physical and biological forces that are immutable. “Homosexuals have been placed in the ‘state of being* rather than the ‘state of doing’ deviants,” he said. Prof. Sagarin also criticized behavioral scientists for their dependence on what he called “partial truths” in their espousal of homosexuality as a social movement and their failure to tolerate different points of view.
And latency as a scientific and social concept is unsound because the potential for development of sexual attitudes in either homosexuals or heterosexuals is the same as both share a common humanity. More than 3,500 delegates from 26 countries are attending the four-day conference which is aimed at examining contemporary social-political events in their relation to individuals and the social system.
