Like wild animals looking to mate, politicians during campaigns make a lot of noise over sex, but the real substance is the diminishment of our sexual freedom
Politicians are strange animals. They hibernate for years at a time, only emerging to participate in the curious ritual known as “campaigning.”
Much like “rutting season” for deer and elk, the politician spends much of the campaign season trying to make as big a show as possible of his prowess.
The culmination of the rutting season ends in showy battles where animals clash their antlers together, making great cracking sounds in the forest.
For the politician, this clashing happens in televised debates where there is much sound and fury and very little substance.
The only reason I say this is because there is an undertone of the whole season that is disturbing.
For elk and deer, it is the season of mating, and only the heartiest males can herd together a sizable group of females to impregnate and then leave.
Hardy Haberman Flagging Left
For politicians it is the season to gather together voters whom they will screw in a metaphorical manner and then abandon, breaking all the pledges they made to their constituents.
OK, so I tortured that metaphor about as much as I can. Here is the point of this whole thing: Both rutting season and campaign season have one thing in common — sex.
For politicians the campaign is the ideal time to focus on the most incendiary topics, and sex is right up there in our society, along with taxes and religion.
The advantage in focusing on sex is it deflects focus from the real issues of the economy, war and jobs.
After all, it’s difficult for the average American to understand the real issues behind the economic problems, job losses and the ongoing wars. But sex? Well, that one is easy.
For politicians, focusing on sex is a slam-dunk. Point to those folks who have sexual preferences that differ from the majority of your voters and you are taking fewer risks.
In a society as sexually repressed as ours, any variance from the perceived norm causes panic, and that can be used to sway votes your way.
It is a sad fact that Americans do not consider sexuality, and more specifically sexual freedom, a basic human right. Because of that, politicians find it easy to whip voters into a frenzy using sex as a campaign issue:
“Ban gay marriage! Stop the homosexual agenda! Stop teaching sex education! End public access to contraception! Stop HPV vaccinations!”
At their root, these issues are all about sex and the discomfort Americans feel even discussing it.
It’s time America grows up and stops behaving like a herd of deer. If we could honestly and thoughtfully address our discomfort in talking about sex, we would go a long way towards becoming a greater nation.
The sooner we accept sexual freedom as one of our basic and sacred human rights, the sooner we will cease being a dysfunctional, adolescent society.
Sexual freedom is the fundamental human right of all individuals to develop and express their unique sexuality. It is nothing to be afraid of, yet politicians and clergy have taken this sacred right and tagged it with incendiary language like “promiscuity” and “immorality.”
It should come as no surprise that they are lying to us. Sexual freedom, like all our rights, is something to be taken seriously. It is the right to express in speech and writing our unique sexuality.
It is the right to obtain medically accurate and inclusive information about sex and sexuality. It is the right to control our bodies and our relationships. It is the right to engage in consensual sexual activity as an expression of who we are as human beings.
It is one of the many gifts we have been endowed with, yet sex is systematically excluded from most discussions of citizens’ rights.
This Friday, Sept. 23 is Sexual Freedom Day. The Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance celebrates this day each year with seminars, conferences and media events. This year the conference takes place in Washington, D.C. at the Pew Charitable Trust Foundation Conference Center and will feature panelists from across the country and around the world.
The idea is to provide a safe space to start talking about sex and human rights.
Elevating the conversation is vital to assuring our rights as LGBT Americans. The sooner we can mature as a country, the sooner issues of sex and sexuality will cease to be tools for use by politicians.
And the sooner we can stop behaving like a herd, the sooner we will cease to be treated like frightened animals.
Maybe then we can concentrate on actually making our country a safer, healthier and better place.
Hardy Haberman is a longtime local LGBT activist and a board member of the Woodhull Freedom Alliance. His blog is at DungeonDiary.blogspot.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 23, 2011.
How, I wish I had known sooner. Yes, we need to reclaim our sexual freedom, it is essential to our health and the health of the planet. In Portland, Or we are working on a platform to decriminalize all sex acts between two consenting adults, even if money is involved. Your Body, Your Business is or slogan.