After reading this article I think it’s safe to say that the next social construct is the gay that chooses to be gay to inflict untold damages on the rest of society. Sadly, it’s not only in Uganda where this type of mentality exists. Pseudo-scientific homophobia like this is alive and well here in the U.S. Arizona just passed a bill that cites religious grounds to allow businesses to refuse service to same-sex couples. Essentially short of asking, there’s no way to know for sure if what you perceive to be a gay couple really is, so what both Ugandan and Arizonian legislation are advocating is that stereo-typing is fair practice because anyone can be perceived to be gay by anyone else. One need only motivation.
The danger in creating, upholding, propagating, and perpetuating vague categories like “gay” is that, just like the vague category kulak, anyone can fit. Homosexuals, just like the peasants of Ukraine in the 1930’s, exist, but they cannot be defined by using stereotyping. There’s more than civil rights at stake here–there’s the danger that these vague groups will be the scapegoats for the failures of these governments and, like with the kulaks, they will be targeted for elimination, if not by a swift death penalty for any actions that look homosexual in Uganda, then by the labeling and open discrimination allowed by Arizonians upon anyone whom they perceive to be “gay.” And like the Ukrainian peasants during WWII, homosexuals will become inhuman things not worthy of human compassion. This will be true for not only those who created, upheld, propagated, and perpetuated this new social construct, but it will be true for those who become apathetic to the distress of fellow humans that have been declared second-class citizens or worse yet, less than human. The danger is clear and present in both these situations.
I’ll be following both these stories closely and posting updates.