The Gay=Philosophy

Senior year of high school, my friend Lee, who was headed to the hallowed halls of Yale the next year, announced that he was going to be a philosophy major. We were out to dinner with another friend's mother. I shrugged at the idea, philosophy to me suggested little more than old, dead Greek dudes. Our other friend's mom, however, had a very clear concept of philosophy. "A PHILOSOPHY major at YALE!?" she cried, shaking her head, "what a waste." An awkward silenced was followed by some strange grunts on her part and than an explanation of how philosophy, like so many academic pursuits, was just useless.

"You know, she explained, you'll learn all this stuff [about old, dead, Greek dudes] and then go to graduate school and learn more and than just teach other people about it. Philosophy is only good for itself."

Which, of course, is not true. But Philosophy, as a discipline, is dependent, I think on the assumption that it is useful or valuable in some way.

Next, I will explain why I remembered this today and it struck me that the assumption that homosexuality is an evil menace functions in a similar kind of way.