With the United States Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage, our side of the world has had an opinion outbreak on love. However people adopt the idea of affection, though, love remains a universal human right and an open door to peace.
Our reality and built perception is constructed and shaped by social norms instilled from childhood; a collection of thoughts that were given to us. Society around us has shaped our approach to the understanding of reality in a certain formula; one way society has shaped our understandings is the media. We all have been grouped into one big collective called the mass. From then onwards, it becomes easier to direct our speculations in an understanding of what is right and wrong.
In the minds of many people, and because of this interference of media, the idea of same-sex love is mocked, hated, feared and has somehow built a misconception of its existence. This obvious approach frames society’s perception in an angle that introduces the LGBTQ committee is a negative light. No, it is not just a ‘trend’ fed by foreign media; it is the lives of individuals that simply have different sexual orientations and tendencies, and has been present throughout history.
According to The Telegraph: “homosexuality traces back to 5000 BC”, where Neolithic and Bronze Age figurines around the Mediterranean were characterized and described as the “third sex”.
In ancient Roman times, the idea of homosexuality was quite common, poetry and theatrical performances expressed the notion of same-sex intimacy very often. One of the Roman Emperors that goes by the name Nero was believed to have married two different men: Sporus and Doryphorus. The practice of same-sex marriage was well tolerated in Roman rulings, until year 342 AD where the Christian emperor Constantuis II and Constans banned same-sex marriage and later put forth the Theodosian Code and the Code of Justinian that sentences the union of two men or two women to death in the name of religion. From then on onwards, religious ideologies embodied the ruling power. Sexual orientations against the ‘norm’ – the norm that was implemented by that same ideology – were kept on the low and were gradually denied by society. That did not lessen from the sole idea that homosexuality was still around all the same, it just became banned to express its existence. In the nourishing of religious art, later on, in the Renaissance period, the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli was charged on the grounds of sodomy for having strong interest in the male anatomy and masculine figures. He went against the ruling power, and away from the huge huddle of mass.
In our days, the ideological authority is what we would call the media. In Lebanon and the Arab World, the images of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer approaches are dealt with mockery, sarcasm, and, quite sadly, disgust. This pre-conceived notion that the union between two of the same sex is always linked to sickness and filthiness only feeds our ignorance. People don’t like what they do not comprehend, and the publishing agenda of our region does not provide the privilege of alertness and understanding on the matter. It shapes our thought to conclusion that straight is right, gay is not.
With the United States Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage, and with social media granting us an open eye to an agenda and beliefs beyond ours, the realization that a considerable part of the world embraces LGBTQ rights triggers fear in our side of the world, and, well, adding fear to ignorance only generates intensified hate. In our region, and the entire MENA region (Middle East and North Africa), the actuality of homosexuality has been directly linked to mental illnesses and is criminalized. In Lebanon, the crime of ‘having sexual intercourse contrary to nature’, under article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code, leads up to a year of imprisonment. The reading of article 534 is considered a violation of the human right to freedom in private affairs and has been continuously fought by the HELEM, the Lebanese non-governmental organization protecting LGBTQ rights, as well as Judge Mounir Souleiman from the Batroun court district who ruled against the article on December 2009.
Learn more, understand more and accept more. With the belief of religion or without it, homosexuality exists, and it trace way back in history. Let’s not seek comfort in being the ‘one-big-mass’ we’re trained to be, but rather delve into a kaleidoscope of diversity and believe in a love that embraces all.
