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變異的性行為
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性少數：概述 5
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三藩市的案例有指導意義的另一個理由是：“同性戀大遊行”有來自該市所有種族少數族群的參與者——中國人、愛爾蘭人、日本人、墨西哥人、菲律賓人、義大利人和許多其他種族的人。這證明一個人同時可能是數個少數族群的成員。
例如，華裔美國少數族群的成員也可能是佛教徒，並因此屬於宗教少數族群。另外，他也許只說中國話和只看中文書，並因而是語言少數族群的一員。而且，他們可能不得不坐在輪椅上，並因此屬於生理殘障者少數族群。最後，作為一名“同性戀者”，他可能屬於性少數族群。
實際上，一個人可能同時屬於數個性少數族群，而某些性少數族群比其他性少數族群可能已經獲得了更大的社會認可度。例如，存在著“同性戀”跨行者、雙性“換偶者”和女同性戀施虐受虐癖者。如果這些因素都歸於某一個種族、某一個宗教和某一種語言的少數族群，其情形甚至就變得更加的複雜了。並不是所有的少數族群都遭受同樣形式和相同程度的歧視，而這種狀況繼而會激發這樣的疑問：
對於那一個個人在哪一種情形之下屬於哪一個少數族群的成員會有哪一種的結局？顯而易見，不同的場合會把不同的少數族群成員引向不同的關注焦點：被限制在輪椅的華裔美國人的女同性戀者也許不僅在2月參加中國農曆新年大遊行，而且會在6月參加“同性戀者”大遊行，而且在某個時候，可能參加政治示威，要求獲得更多的殘障者的權利。
正如這個例子所例舉的一樣，沒有任何一項少數族群的地位始終能夠詮釋所有人的特徵。把某一個人貼上少數族群的標籤有時可能是有用的，甚至是不可避免的，但是這也可能是十分容易引起誤解的。當個人把自己貼上標籤的時候，其情形也與之完全相同。人類的生活過於複雜，難以分類。尤其在人的性的這個領域，我們始終容易犯固執己見的錯誤，而且對性少數的更加重要的特徵方面熟視無睹。無論如何，
未能設身處地站在性少數族群的角度把他們當作一個個獨立的和具有完整人格的個體，這既不公正也不切實際：事實上，並不存在什麼“同性戀者”、“戀物癖者”或“施虐受虐癖者”。只存在著在特殊環境下展露自己的特殊性行為的一個個活生生的獨立個體，除此之外，把他們貼上某種標籤的做法簡直沒有告訴我們他們生活的其他方面究竟怎樣。這樣的標籤用途非常有限，而且從來就不是適當的，甚至決不適合用來描述我們人類（的行為特徵）。每一個女人和每一個男人都無例外地不是少數族群的成員。 |
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Variations in Sexual Behavior |
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Sexual Minorities: Introduction 5 |
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The example of San Francisco is instructive for another reason: The “gay parade” has participants from all of the city’s ethnic minorities - Chinese, Irish, Japanese, Mexican, Filipino, Italian, and many more. This shows that
a person can be a member of several minorities at the same time.
For example, a member of the Chinese American minority can also be a Buddhist and therefore belong to religious minority. In addition, he may speak and read only Chinese and thus be part of a linguistic minority. Moreover, he may be confined to a wheelchair and thus belong to the minority of the physically disabled. Finally, as a “gay” person, he may belong to a sexual minority.
Actually, an individual may belong to several sexual minorities simultaneously, and some of these may have gained more social acceptance than others. There are, for instance, “gay” transsexuals, bisexual “swingers”, and lesbian sadomasochistic fetishists. If these also happen to belong to some ethnic, religious, and linguistic minority, the picture becomes even more complicated. Not all minorities suffer the same kinds and degrees of discrimination, and this raises the question: Which minority membership will have which consequences for which individual in which
situation? Obviously, different occasions will bring different memberships into focus: A wheelchair-bound lesbian Chinese American may join not only the Chinese New Year’s parade in February, but also the “gay” parade in June and, at some other time, may participate in a political demonstration demanding more rights for the disabled.
As this example illustrates,
no minority status can ever define the whole person. Attaching a minority label to someone may sometimes be helpful and even unavoidable, but it can also be quite misleading. This is equally true when individuals label themselves. Human life is too complex for easy categorizations. Especially in the sphere of human sexuality, we are always is a danger of stereotyping people and becoming blind to the other, more important aspects of their character. However, failing to see them as unique, complete personalities in their own right is both unfair and unrealistic: In reality, there are no “gays”, “fetishists”, or “sadomasochists”. There are only concrete individuals who show their own specific sexual behaviors under specific conditions, but this tells us little or nothing about the rest of their lives. Such labels have a very limited use and are never adequate or even appropriate for the description of a human being. Every woman and every man is always more than a member of a minority. |
