I think this is a thoughtful article and, assuming that the historical references I’m not certain of check out, it’s a great theory. Where the writer loses me is at the end.

There is not a dichotomy between a libertine faction that produces pornography on the one hand, and fundamentalists who are terrorized by anything Queer (and strive to crush it) on the other. Rather, they are part of the same thing. There is nothing sexually liberal about pornography (difficult as it is to define the word, let’s assume we know what we mean).

Porn is the natural result of repression, just like the hatred of gay and lesbian people is. They are the same product with the same function: the expression of, or an outlet for, repressed sexual desire. One beats on women; the other largely on men. In this respect they are identical.

The problem we face, though, if we want to create a tolerant society (and very few people do, particularly those who find safety in fear), is that we must tolerate everything, at least to the point of being able to address it.

If we ban porn, we also walk into the trap of banning the forms of sexual speech that would allow the freedoms we seek, including this very discussion. We would ban the imagery that would show us there is another way to portray sexuality visually or in writing.

There is no easy answer except to hold the space for the discussion open, which is actually not so easy, but at least it’s possible.

Eric Francis
http://planetwaves.net/