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{{Short description|Views regarding homosexuality}} | |||
{{Objectivism}} | |||
{{obj}} | |||
] is a ] created by ], which some ] and ] people have been interested in for its celebration of personal freedom and individuality at the expense of government power. However, Rand's personal views of homosexuality were unambiguously negative and her political views were incompatible with those of the mainstream ] movement. | |||
{{LGBTQ sidebar}} | |||
], author and developer of ], held controversial views regarding ] and ]s. Although Rand personally viewed homosexuality negatively, considering it immoral and disgusting, she endorsed non-discrimination protection for homosexuals in the public (or government) sphere while opposing laws against discrimination in the private sector on the basis of individual rights. | |||
==Ayn Rand== | ==Ayn Rand== | ||
Rand only mentioned homosexuality twice in her published writings, both times in reference to ].<ref name="companion">{{cite book |first1=John David |last1=Lewis |first2=Gregory |last2=Salmieri |chapter=A Philosopher on Her Times: Ayn Rand's Political and Cultural Commentary |editor1-first=Allan |editor1-last=Gotthelf |editor2-first=Gregory |editor2-last=Salmieri |title=A Companion to Ayn Rand |publisher=Wiley Blackwell |isbn=978-1-4051-8684-1 |year=2015 |page=396n87 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> In 1971, she published an essay called "The Age of Envy", which included criticism of the ]. Rand's criticisms included denouncing "sex views" that she considered "hideous", including "proclaim spiritual sisterhood with lesbians".<ref>{{cite book |first=Ayn |last=Rand |chapter=The Age of Envy |title=] |publisher=New American Library |year=1971}}</ref> Later that year, Rand published another essay that criticized women's liberation for forming a "common front with lesbians and prostitutes".<ref>{{cite journal |first=Ayn |last=Rand |title=The Disfranchisement of the Right |journal=The Ayn Rand Letter |date=December 20, 1971 |volume=1 |issue=6 |page=26}}</ref> Additionally, in a 1963 article for '']'' (later reprinted in '']''), Rand's protege ] wrote about supposed conflicts between the moral and the practical, giving as an example: "the adolescent who flees into homosexuality because he has been taught that sex is evil and that women are to be worshiped, but not desired".<ref>Branden, Nathaniel. "Mental Health versus Mysticism and Self-Sacrifice". In {{cite book|last=Rand|first=Ayn|title=The Virtue of Selfishness|isbn=978-0-451-16393-6|year=1964|publisher=Penguin|location=New York|title-link=The Virtue of Selfishness}}</ref> | |||
===Public statements=== | |||
In ], Rand published ''The New Left'', a collection of essays which directly attacked the ] and sexual liberation movements, including the gay rights movement. She called them "hideous" for their demand for what she considered "special privileges" from the government. She also addressed homosexuality itself, writing that "o proclaim spiritual sisterhood with lesbians... is so repulsive a set of premises from so loathsome a sense of life that an accurate commentary would require the kind of language I do not like to see in print." ("The Age of Envy") | |||
Rand explained her views in more detail in response to questions from the audience at two Ford Hall Forum lectures she gave at ]. In her 1968 lecture, she said, "I do not approve of such practices or regard them as necessarily moral, but it is improper for the law to interfere with a relationship between consenting adults."<ref>{{cite book|last=Rand|first=Ayn|editor-last=Mayhew|editor-first=Robert|year=2005|title=Ayn Rand Answers, the Best of Her Q&A|isbn=978-0-451-21665-6|publisher=New American Library|location=New York|page=18}}</ref> She did not directly address ]s that prohibit discrimination based on ], but in general she was opposed to laws that prohibit discrimination in the ].<ref>{{cite book|first=Robert|last=Garmong|chapter=The Arc of Liberalism: Locke, Mill, and Rand|editor1-last=Salmieri|editor1-first=Gregory|editor2-last=Mayhew|editor2-first=Robert|title=Foundations of a Free Society: Reflections on Ayn Rand's Political Philosophy|series=Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies|date=2019|location=Pittsburgh|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|isbn=978-0-8229-4548-2|name-list-style=amp|pages=316–323}}</ref> | |||
Rand's heir ] stated that Rand had friends that she knew were homosexual, including ones that she considered Objectivists.<ref name="companion"/> However, the negative attitudes towards homosexuality expressed by Rand and Branden were copied by many of her followers, including some who attempted to repress their own homosexual feelings.<ref>{{cite book|title=Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right|last=Burns|first=Jennifer|author-link=Jennifer Burns (historian)|location=New York|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-532487-7|title-link=Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right|page=236}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Ayn Rand and the World She Made|last=Heller|first=Anne C.|location=New York|publisher=Doubleday|year=2009|isbn=978-0-385-51399-9|title-link=Ayn Rand and the World She Made|pages=362–363}}</ref> | |||
While Rand ], her views were consistent with a form of ] called ]. Her stance on the legalities of homosexuality likewise matched the ], leading to support of certain rights but not others. In specific, while she endorsed ]s that protect gays from discrimination by the government, she rejected the "right" to be protected from discrimination in the ]. | |||
== |
==After Rand's death== | ||
After Rand's death in 1982, her heir, Leonard Peikoff, publicly disagreed with some of her views. Peikoff argued that homosexuality itself is not open to moral judgment. Other contemporary Objectivists generally continue to support the view that, while government should not discriminate for or against homosexuals in any way, private individuals and private organizations should be free to do so, which is generally in keeping with most strains of libertarian and classical liberal thought. | |||
Rand asserted that the "the essence of femininity is hero worship — the desire to look up to man" and that "an ideal woman is a man-worshiper, and an ideal man is the highest symbol of mankind." In other words, Rand felt that it was part of human nature for a psychologically healthy woman to want to be ruled in sexual matters by a man worthy of ruling her. In an authorized article in ''The Objectivist'', psychiatrist ], Rand's extramarital lover and onetime "intellectual heir," explains Rand's view as the idea that "man experiences the essence of his masculinity in the act of romantic dominance; woman experiences the essence of her femininity in the act of romantic surrender." (1968) | |||
⚫ | In 1983, Branden wrote that Rand was "absolutely and totally ignorant” about homosexuality. Branden added that he saw her perspective "as calamitous, as wrong, as reckless, as irresponsible, and as cruel, and as one which I know has hurt too many people who ... looked up to her and assumed that if she would make that strong a statement she must have awfully good reasons."<ref>"Ayn Rand and Homosexuality" Paul Varnell, Chicago Free Press, {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927092001/http://www.indegayforum.org/news/show/27018.html |date=2006-09-27 }}</ref> | ||
===Reactions=== | |||
⚫ | In |
||
According to an FAQ from The Atlas Society (formerly The Objectivist Center): | |||
], Branden's wife and Rand's biographer, "considered her profoundly negative judgment to be rash and unreasonable." Noted gay Objectivist writer Arthur Silber summed the issue up by saying, "Rand did have an extremely unfortunate tendency to moralize in areas where moral judgments were irrelevant and unjustified. ... especially in ... ] and ]." | |||
⚫ | <blockquote>While many conservatives believe that homosexuality should be outlawed and many ] believe that homosexuals should be given special rights, Objectivism holds that as long as no force is involved, people have the right to do as they please in sexual matters, whether or not their behavior is considered by others to be or is in fact moral. And since individual rights are grounded in the nature of human beings as human beings, homosexuals do not deserve any more or less rights than ]s.<ref>{{cite web |first=D. |last=Moskovitz |url=http://www.atlassociety.org/homosexuality-moral |title=Homosexuality |publisher=The Objectivist Center |date=January 5, 2002 |access-date=November 23, 2008}}</ref></blockquote> | ||
Objectivist psychotherapist ] supports ] as falling under the rights of individuals to associate voluntarily. Unlike Rand, however, he does not view homosexuality as immoral, stating that "a gay marriage... though unconventional and highly controversial, can be a loving and highly satisfying union between two individuals."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?id=3612 |title=Gay Marriage |first=Michael J. |last=Hurd |publisher=Capitalism Magazine |date=April 24, 2004 |access-date=November 23, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.aynrandbookstore2.com/prodinfo.asp?number=IX01M |title=Romance: Bringing Love and Sex Together (CD) |access-date=2009-10-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005233911/http://www.aynrandbookstore2.com/prodinfo.asp?number=IX01M |archive-date=2009-10-05 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Objectivist psychologist ] has expressed opinions similar to those of Hurd.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=16386&allEpisodes= |title=The Rational Basis of Homosexuality, Kenner |access-date=2009-10-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928032405/http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=16386&allEpisodes= |archive-date=2011-09-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | |||
], of the ] writes that, while Rand generally condemned homosexuality, she would adopt a more tolerant view of it "when she was in an especially good mood." He also noted that he "asked her privately (circa ]) specifically whether she thought it was immoral. She said that we didn't know enough about the development of homosexuality in a person's psychology to say that it would have to involve immorality." | |||
Chartered affiliates of the ], a minor political party in the United States, adopted platforms opposing government-sanctioned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, favoring legalization of same-sex marriage, and favoring elimination of the military's policy of "]".<ref></ref> | |||
==Post Rand== | |||
After Rand's death in ], Objectivist organizations have generally had little to say about homosexuality or gay rights. While some notable Objectivists believed that homosexuality was a ] that needed to be cured, being homosexual was never grounds for exclusion from the ARI, and contemporary Objectivists generally continue to support the view that the government must allow anyone other than itself to discriminate against homosexuals. | |||
In a critical study of Rand in 2019, ] said that despite Rand's negative view of homosexuality, the ] of characters in her novels and her "libertarian rages against the strictures of family, church, and state" are appealing to ] readers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Duggan|first=Lisa|author-link=Lisa Duggan|title=Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed|publisher=University of California Press|location=Oakland, California|date=2019|isbn=978-0-520-96779-3|page=11}}</ref> | |||
For example, according to Objectivist Damian Moskovitz: | |||
⚫ | |||
==See also== | |||
Like Rand, leading Objectivist psychologist ] supports ] as falling under the rights of individuals to associate voluntarily. Unlike Rand, however, he does not view homosexuality as immoral, stating that "a gay marriage... though unconventional and highly controversial, can be a loving and highly satisfying union between two individuals ." | |||
⚫ | * ] | ||
==Notes== | |||
<div class="references-small"><references/></div> | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
{{reflist}} | |||
* ''Rand, Ayn, Homosexuality and Human Liberation'' (2003) | |||
* "The Female Hero: A Randian-Feminist Synthesis", Thomas Gramstad (1999) | |||
== |
==Further reading== | ||
* {{cite book |title=Ayn Rand, Homosexuality, and Human Liberation |last=Sciabarra |first=Chris Matthew | author-link =Chris Matthew Sciabarra |location=Cape Town, South Africa |publisher=Leap Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=0-9584573-3-6}} | |||
* {{cite book|first=Thomas|last=Gramstad|chapter=The Female Hero: A Randian-Feminist Synthesis|title=Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand|editor1-last=Gladstein|editor1-first=Mimi Reisel|editor2-last=Sciabarra|editor2-first=Chris Matthew|editor1-link=Mimi Reisel Gladstein|editor2-link=Chris Matthew Sciabarra|location=University Park, Pennsylvania|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-271-01830-0|series=Re-reading the Canon series|name-list-style=amp}} | |||
{{Ayn Rand|state=autocollapse}} | |||
⚫ | *] | ||
] | |||
] | ] | ||
] | ] |
Latest revision as of 15:25, 25 October 2024
Views regarding homosexualityAyn Rand, author and developer of Objectivism, held controversial views regarding homosexuality and gender roles. Although Rand personally viewed homosexuality negatively, considering it immoral and disgusting, she endorsed non-discrimination protection for homosexuals in the public (or government) sphere while opposing laws against discrimination in the private sector on the basis of individual rights.
Ayn Rand
Rand only mentioned homosexuality twice in her published writings, both times in reference to lesbians. In 1971, she published an essay called "The Age of Envy", which included criticism of the women's liberation movement. Rand's criticisms included denouncing "sex views" that she considered "hideous", including "proclaim spiritual sisterhood with lesbians". Later that year, Rand published another essay that criticized women's liberation for forming a "common front with lesbians and prostitutes". Additionally, in a 1963 article for The Objectivist Newsletter (later reprinted in The Virtue of Selfishness), Rand's protege Nathaniel Branden wrote about supposed conflicts between the moral and the practical, giving as an example: "the adolescent who flees into homosexuality because he has been taught that sex is evil and that women are to be worshiped, but not desired".
Rand explained her views in more detail in response to questions from the audience at two Ford Hall Forum lectures she gave at Northeastern University. In her 1968 lecture, she said, "I do not approve of such practices or regard them as necessarily moral, but it is improper for the law to interfere with a relationship between consenting adults." She did not directly address anti-discrimination laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, but in general she was opposed to laws that prohibit discrimination in the private sector.
Rand's heir Leonard Peikoff stated that Rand had friends that she knew were homosexual, including ones that she considered Objectivists. However, the negative attitudes towards homosexuality expressed by Rand and Branden were copied by many of her followers, including some who attempted to repress their own homosexual feelings.
After Rand's death
After Rand's death in 1982, her heir, Leonard Peikoff, publicly disagreed with some of her views. Peikoff argued that homosexuality itself is not open to moral judgment. Other contemporary Objectivists generally continue to support the view that, while government should not discriminate for or against homosexuals in any way, private individuals and private organizations should be free to do so, which is generally in keeping with most strains of libertarian and classical liberal thought.
In 1983, Branden wrote that Rand was "absolutely and totally ignorant” about homosexuality. Branden added that he saw her perspective "as calamitous, as wrong, as reckless, as irresponsible, and as cruel, and as one which I know has hurt too many people who ... looked up to her and assumed that if she would make that strong a statement she must have awfully good reasons."
According to an FAQ from The Atlas Society (formerly The Objectivist Center):
While many conservatives believe that homosexuality should be outlawed and many liberals believe that homosexuals should be given special rights, Objectivism holds that as long as no force is involved, people have the right to do as they please in sexual matters, whether or not their behavior is considered by others to be or is in fact moral. And since individual rights are grounded in the nature of human beings as human beings, homosexuals do not deserve any more or less rights than heterosexuals.
Objectivist psychotherapist Michael J. Hurd supports gay marriage as falling under the rights of individuals to associate voluntarily. Unlike Rand, however, he does not view homosexuality as immoral, stating that "a gay marriage... though unconventional and highly controversial, can be a loving and highly satisfying union between two individuals." Objectivist psychologist Ellen Kenner has expressed opinions similar to those of Hurd.
Chartered affiliates of the Objectivist Party, a minor political party in the United States, adopted platforms opposing government-sanctioned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, favoring legalization of same-sex marriage, and favoring elimination of the military's policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".
In a critical study of Rand in 2019, Lisa Duggan said that despite Rand's negative view of homosexuality, the sexual liberation of characters in her novels and her "libertarian rages against the strictures of family, church, and state" are appealing to LGBT readers.
See also
References
- ^ Lewis, John David & Salmieri, Gregory (2015). "A Philosopher on Her Times: Ayn Rand's Political and Cultural Commentary". In Gotthelf, Allan & Salmieri, Gregory (eds.). A Companion to Ayn Rand. Wiley Blackwell. p. 396n87. ISBN 978-1-4051-8684-1.
- Rand, Ayn (1971). "The Age of Envy". The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution. New American Library.
- Rand, Ayn (December 20, 1971). "The Disfranchisement of the Right". The Ayn Rand Letter. 1 (6): 26.
- Branden, Nathaniel. "Mental Health versus Mysticism and Self-Sacrifice". In Rand, Ayn (1964). The Virtue of Selfishness. New York: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-451-16393-6.
- Rand, Ayn (2005). Mayhew, Robert (ed.). Ayn Rand Answers, the Best of Her Q&A. New York: New American Library. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-451-21665-6.
- Garmong, Robert (2019). "The Arc of Liberalism: Locke, Mill, and Rand". In Salmieri, Gregory & Mayhew, Robert (eds.). Foundations of a Free Society: Reflections on Ayn Rand's Political Philosophy. Ayn Rand Society Philosophical Studies. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. pp. 316–323. ISBN 978-0-8229-4548-2.
- Burns, Jennifer (2009). Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-19-532487-7.
- Heller, Anne C. (2009). Ayn Rand and the World She Made. New York: Doubleday. pp. 362–363. ISBN 978-0-385-51399-9.
- "Ayn Rand and Homosexuality" Paul Varnell, Chicago Free Press, reprinted Archived 2006-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- Moskovitz, D. (January 5, 2002). "Homosexuality". The Objectivist Center. Retrieved November 23, 2008.
- Hurd, Michael J. (April 24, 2004). "Gay Marriage". Capitalism Magazine. Retrieved November 23, 2008.
- "Romance: Bringing Love and Sex Together (CD)". Archived from the original on 2009-10-05. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
- "The Rational Basis of Homosexuality, Kenner". Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2009-10-08.
- Affiliate Platforms
- Duggan, Lisa (2019). Mean Girl: Ayn Rand and the Culture of Greed. Oakland, California: University of California Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-520-96779-3.
Further reading
- Sciabarra, Chris Matthew (2003). Ayn Rand, Homosexuality, and Human Liberation. Cape Town, South Africa: Leap Publishing. ISBN 0-9584573-3-6.
- Gramstad, Thomas (1999). "The Female Hero: A Randian-Feminist Synthesis". In Gladstein, Mimi Reisel & Sciabarra, Chris Matthew (eds.). Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand. Re-reading the Canon series. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-01830-0.
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