Our Undefined Sexual Revolution Needs Some Definition
By Guy Shepherd
PlannedMan

"If you can think it," goes the mantra, "it must be good." But caution: That's a product of modern thinking that comes without any guarantees.

Our Undefined Sexual Revolution Needs Some Definition

Highlights


Society is in constant flux, but that doesn't mean all change is good.

Change requires a vision and an architecture — a plan built on principles. Without that, 'change'...

...is just the latest idea. And the latest idea is not always a great idea.

In fact, it just may be a terrible idea.

I was hanging out with Mrs. Shepherd —and her Padawan, Brittany—a lovely single woman, decades our junior—having dinner before the opening night of  the musical riff on “Bohemian Rhapsody”. 

She made an observation on our present sexual zeitgeist that is worth sharing: “What do you make of this undefined sexual moment? Is this a new normal?”

Are you asking if it’s a fashion—a fad—or a new feature? 

 “Yes,” she answered. 

“We will see. I am interested in watching it play out.” 

Once upon a time—not too long ago— society made it hard to step outside the norm.  I have a cousin who was headed to the altar to satisfy the longings of others.  I can’t imagine what it must be like to not feel nor be able to follow your natural sexual inclinations.  And, I would argue my lack of imagination—a lack of which I am not alone—has opened the American mind and heart to a sexual rainbow.  

Today, the closet door is flung wide open. Society—after much time and struggle—has changed its mind and tune.  We are in the first season of “Let the Lid off Your ID.”  

As we learned with all civil-rights struggles, without the principles that guide our execution, we have no clue how this going to end.

A word of caution: As we learned with all civil-rights struggles, the principles that guide our execution matter. We have no clue how this going to end. 

My advice, which is unsolicited but heart- and mind-felt—and surely will not go unpunished—is the following: 

Let’s keep the flavors of personal expression and the pursuit happiness within natural and constitutional limits.  

Our creed is big enough, principled enough to include and ennoble this present celebration. 

Just as the Declaration’s understanding of “All Men” included all black men and all women—it is capacious enough to include our present sexual pursuits of happiness. In this moment, Frederick Douglass and RuPaul are the same.  

On that point, hangs everything important to us all.   If we loose the ground for our shared humanity, we loose everything. 

Black lives matter, yes, and trans lives matter and Guy’s life matters and so does yours—because the human animal is created equal and with that equality comes the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  

What else is necessary?  What are we missing?  I would argue nothing. 

Sadly, instead of embracing and celebrating these principles as their own—and declaring another milestone in the unfolding of Equality’s promise—the supposed intellectual vanguard of this movement—as opposed to the rank-and-file of those in the pursuit—are putting forth new, weaker foundations that quite frankly are less than our fellow humans deserve and success demands. Those foundations cannot support a new, more capacious social structure. Simple human willfulness provides only the foundations of moral and political chaos.  

Equality remains the Unum—the one idea and ideal—that can bring the Pluribus of the human family together.  

Everything else is Regress painted as Progress.  Don’t fall for it.  

Hang in there,

Guy

 

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