"I just became the happiest man alive!! My beautiful Queen and I are having a baby!!" he tweeted. "Wait what?" one user wrote. "Aren't you gay?" another added.ADDED: He doesn't seem to be denying his homosexual orientation, just rejecting the behavior urged by the orientation, which is exactly what many religions teach. He isn't claiming to be sexually attracted to the woman that he's gotten pregnant. You'd think if he were devoted to following traditional religious teachings he would refrain from pregnancy-causing behavior outside of marriage. Who knows what the whole story is?
Last May, Dodson claimed he wanted "a wife and family" and "to multiply and raise and love my family that I create." Dodson explained in a series of tweets that he had become a "True Hebrew Israelite descendant of Judah" and referred to his former lifestyle as "foolish."
"I have to renounce myself, I'm no longer into homosexuality," he concluded.
There are several moral/religious issues that we can't disentangle in this particular case without knowing more. And I don't really need to know more about Antoine Dodson to go on with the issues raised in a more general fashion:
1. A man's desire to produce offspring is separate from his desire to have sexual intercourse with a particular human being, and many men of homosexual orientation have produced children with women who don't interest them sexually. One reason it's helpful to be honest and not repressed about homosexuality is so that people don't deceive themselves into entering sexually unsatisfying marriages.
2. A homosexual man who wants a family with children might attract a woman into a marriage (or other child-bearing relationship). He could be deceiving himself and her — which is very sad. He could be only deceiving her — which is just plain wrong. Or the 2 of them could be eyes-wide-open about what they are doing, which is, if they really understand what they are doing, a matter of individual choice.
3. It's a separate issue whether that man and woman, having formed a family like that, give each other permission to find sexual satisfaction with other partners. That's not traditional morality, but it is a matter of individual choice.
4. And it's a separate issue whether a man and a woman, having come together to bring a child into the world, must stay together to raise that child. This is the most serious moral issue, because the child isn't given any choice.
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That Dodson uses the rather peculiar phrase True Hebrew Israelite descendant of Judah to describe what he has become leads me to believe he's converted to one of the sects aligned with the Black Judaism movement.
In the black religious world, public pronouncements that one's faith has led one to renounce homosexuality aren't new. Little Richard comes to mind as a famous example.
That about covers it.
But if a man/woman wants to stop being homosexual, can they do that or not by trying to? Is it like stopping smoking?
One fact cited by Judge Walker in the decision that struck down Proposition 8 in California, is that the idea that homosexuality is an identity instead of a behavior has only been around for about a hundred years. We now say that a man who likes to have sex with men IS gay, and if he once in while has sex with women we furiously argue about whether he IS REALLY gay or IS REALLY bisexual.
For some percentage of humans it may very well be true that they have an inborn orientation that doesn't change over their lifetime, but the vast majority of humanity must be somewhat flexible or you can't explain cultures like ancient Greece and Rome or the modern Arab world, where occasional homosexuality is widespread among men who reject the identity. How did such large percentages of the population come to be "born that way" and such large percentages of ours not? It's unlikely that for most of us, "born that way" is how it is.
This man deserves an invite to the next White House Bisexual Invisible Visiblity Day! I think he could really enlighten some people on bisexuality, in an invisible way.
A couple if points:
First, one does not simply declare themselves of the tribe of Judah anymore than I can declare myself to be of the family of Rockefeller.
Second, the biological imperative for males is to sire progeny. In order for human mates to stay together to raise the progeny, there should be an emotional connection between mother and father (which benefits the mother mostly during the long gestation period).
Dodson wants a trophy. The fact that a significant portion of Americans find nothing wrong with this viewpoint is a condemnation of society. There are no principles other than self aggrandizement; building monuments to self on a foundation of sand. -CP
I find it bizarre when people identify as only one thing their whole lives. Sexuality is quite fluid. I've basically been straight but early on it wasn't as polarized as when I began to want kids. Then everything changed and I started spontaneously liking different types of guys and having much more aggressively het feelings, not to be confused with sexual feelings which were just as strong before. Deep psychological changes spontaneously changed the tone too. And then it changed again.
Ironically, I find some gays in their understandable need to publicly embrace 'who they are' can be a little rigid... sort of like black people who don't want to do anything that might be perceived as white.
Is he going to hide his kid and his queen? Wait, which is the queen?
As an interesting thought:
What is the difference between religiously-motivated changes of sexual orientation and surgical changes of sex organs?
(If you don't think religiously-motivated change to sexual orientation is possible, then replace with religiously-motivated change to sexual behavior (relative to apparent sexual orientation).)
If a homosexually-oriented man was "born that way", how different is he from a biological male who was "born that way?"
What is the difference between male-to-female sex-reassignment surgery and counseling/therapy/prayer sessions intended to help change homosexual orientation into heterosexual orientation?
If the person who was "born that way" desires the change, is helping the change wrong?
Why do the social liberals react differently to sex-reassignment surgery and attempts to change sexual-orientation?
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footnote: at least one State has moved to severely limit any kind of therapy which claims to change sexual orientation.
So far, they've only focused on such therapy as offered to minors. And they appear to focus on psychologists practicing medicine, not religious groups...but there is a definite motive in at least on liberal-dominated State Legislature to shut down sexual-orientation-changing therapy.
Sexuality is quite fluid.
What's the difference between a straight girl, and a lesbian??
Five or six drinks.
All kidding aside, I believe it is easier for a woman to be sexually fluid. For a guy??...not so much. Companionship isn't a priority for men.
He doesn't seem to be denying his homosexual orientation, just rejecting the behavior urged by the orientation, which is exactly what many religions teach.
Once a guy even hints that he's gay, no one will believe differently. As Gabriel Hanna said.
Now that being gay is adorable, it is a choice to be made. Watching kids in middle and high school makes that pretty obvious. They are all over the place. I know of more than one kid who has been straight, gay, and bi. He'll make up his mind one of these days...the question is whether people will ever let him be something other than gay.
"I find it bizarre when people identify as only one thing their whole lives. Sexuality is quite fluid. I've basically been straight but early on it wasn't as polarized as when I began to want kids...."
I read those last 4 words in a way that you didn't intend....
Fluid sexuality used to be a big lefty meme.
In the 80s people were reading "Orlando" and "Sexing the Cherry."
If a guy has sex in prison, is he gay? Does it matter whether he's the top or bottom?
And, what happened to that "Lesbian Until Graduation" meme, anyway?
@Ann Althouse
Oh dear.
Want to have kids.
That's not much better.
Want to start a family.
"Mixed orientation marriage"
A blog titled, Common Themes is all about this form.
http://thethomasprince.wordpress.com/
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I witness a man (I knew)leave his wife for another man. The children and the divorcing couple were young.
I say (I knew), because I said something that was not supportive of their divorce. He was knowing bisexual prior to marriage, so it wasn't like he came out within the marriage.
More upset he moved 30 miles away to be with his new boyfriend, then his orientation.
At least they could live in two family home or in the same neighborhood so he could help out more.
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