Word: oppenheimer
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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While I admire the candor of Noah D. Oppenheim '00 (Column, Apr. 3) regarding his moral issues with "Gaypril" (and his bold decision to print slang variants of "clitoris" in an article decrying the "downright obscene"), I must disagree with his loaded assessment that "[queers] may need to accept that the biological footing of heterosexuality...cannot be overcome...
...When Oppenheim writes that "the acceptance of racial and gender difference may have been possible...only because such inclusions did not involve revision of our basic moral principles," it is the nadir of an article whose unspoken agenda is to insist that homosexuality is fundamentally immoral...
...Oppenheim-who cannot be unaware of the great strides Harvard and out society has made in changing its "culture" over the years--adopts a defeatist attitude that seems highly suspect...
...assertion that homosexuality is on biologically shaky grounds is just that--an assertion. As highlighted as an argument against the activities of the BGLTSA [Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Supporters Alliance] in Oppenheim's article, it harkens back to the pseudoscience of 19th-and 20th-century race theorists. Perhaps some might agree with Oppenheim that "basic models of ethics and of sexuality are two of those foundations...that preserve a society's stability." But these are same people who object to the presence of women anywhere outside the kitchen. If a society cannot with-stand the integration of queer culture...
...strict division in Oppenheim's article between "political" questions such as same-sex marriage and "cultural" questions is highly suspect. Despite Harvard's legal implementation of sexual equality, sexual discrimination still presents itself in purely "cultural" interactions. A professor's chance comment that the female mind is unsuited to the study of a certain subject, for example, leads to dysfunctional advising relationships...