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变异的性行为
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性少数: 概述 5
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旧金山的案例有指导意义的另一个理由是：“同性恋大游行”有来自该市所有种族少数族群的参与者——中国人、爱尔兰人、日本人、墨西哥人、菲律宾人、意大利人和许多其它种族的人。这证明一个人同时可能是数个少数族群的成员。
例如，华裔美国少数族群的成员也可能是佛教徒，并因此属于宗教少数族群。另外，他也许只说中国话和只看中文书，并因而是语言少数族群的一员。而且，他们可能不得不坐在轮椅上，并因此属于生理残障者少数族群。最后，作为一名“同性恋者”，他可能属于性少数族群。
实际上，一个人可能同时属于数个性少数族群，而某些性少数族群比其它性少数族群可能已经获得了更大的社会认可度。例如，存在着“同性恋”跨行者、双性“换偶者”和女同性恋施虐受虐癖者。如果这些因素都归于某一个种族、某一个宗教和某一种语言的少数族群，其情形甚至就变得更加的复杂了。并不是所有的少数族群都遭受同样形式和相同程度的歧视，而这种状况继而会激发这样的疑问：
对于那一个个人在哪一种情形之下属于哪一个少数族群的成员会有哪一种的结局？显而易见，不同的场合会把不同的少数族群成员引向不同的关注焦点：被限制在轮椅的华裔美国人的女同性恋者也许不仅在2月参加中国农历新年大游行，而且会在6月参加“同性恋者”大游行，而且在某个时候，可能参加政治示威，要求获得更多的残障者的权利。
正如这个例子所例举的一样，没有任何一项少数族群的地位始终能够诠释所有人的特征。把某一个人贴上少数族群的标签有时可能是有用的，甚至是不可避免的，但是这也可能是十分容易引起误解的。当个人把自己贴上标签的时候，其情形也与之完全相同。人类的生活过于复杂，难以分类。尤其在人的性的这个领域，我们始终容易犯固执己见的错误，而且对性少数的更加重要的特征方面熟视无睹。无论如何，
未能设身处地站在性少数族群的角度把他们当作一个个独立的和具有完整人格的个体，这既不公正也不切实际：事实上，并不存在什么“同性恋者”、“恋物癖者”或“施虐受虐癖者”。只存在着在特殊环境下展露自己的特殊性行为的一个个活生生的独立个体，除此之外，把他们贴上某种标签的做法简直没有告诉我们他们生活的其他方面究竟怎样。这样的标签用途非常有限，而且从来就不是适当的，甚至决不适合用来描述我们人类（的行为特征）。每一个女人和每一个男人都无例外地不是少数族群的成员。 |
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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. |
