In our must-read first installment in this series we used Wikipedia’s definition of the word paraphilia:
Paraphilia (from Greek παρά para “beside” and -philia φιλία “friendship, love”) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, or individuals.[1] Paraphilic behavior (such as pedophilia, zoophilia, sexual sadism, and exhibitionism) may be illegal in some jurisdictions, but may also be tolerated.
It is in the spirit of tolerance that we’ve been examining paraphilias other than the ones represented by the letters LGBT. Why should they get all the attention?
Here’s Wikipedia again – note the three words above the definition:
“Bestiality” redirects here.
Zoophilia is a paraphilia involving cross-species sexual activity between human and non-human animals or a fixation on such practice. The term zoophilia derives from the combination of two nouns in Greek: ζῷον (zṓion, meaning “animal”) and φιλία (philia, meaning “(fraternal) love”). As a suffix, -philia indicates an abnormal liking for or tendency towards a given thing. Thus, the term denotes an abnormal human sexual attraction to animals.
Although we have a lot of ground to cover, I wanted to get this one over with early on. It’s not that the desire to have sex with animals is any worse than many of the other paraphilias. It’s just that for some of us, even reading about it pushes us to our limits. Call it intolerance if you’d like.
Some people may ask, “where in the heck would you read about bestiality?” Type the word “bestiality” into Google and click on the news search. Not everyone sees every headline, and many of us wish we’d missed those reports too. For the countless millions of normal people who consider themselves animal lovers, by the way, you might want to start watching your language.
One reader brought a 2012 article to our attention written by Antonio M. Haynes, a Cornell University law student: “’Dog on Man’: Are Bestiality Laws Justifiable?” Just to be clear, I only read the first four pages so I have no idea what his argument is. It wasn’t easy getting that far — and those four pages are mostly filled with footnotes at the bottom of each page (which I skipped completely). Download it if you dare and see how much of it you can stomach.
The following two passages are from the book, Strained Relations: The Challenge of Homosexuality, by Bill Muehlenberg:
The truth is, when we redefine marriage all boundaries are smashed. There are even groups arguing for the right to marry one’s pet! Called petrosexuality, this new sexuality group insists that a person’s love for his or her pet, including sexual relations, should be made official. Thus one Dutch website encourages people to marry their pets.
…
The Gay Report, a book much praised in homosexual communities, contains testimonials without adverse comment of homosexual encounters with Labrador retrievers, cows and horses. The 1992 report mentioned above found that 15 per cent of male homosexuals and 19 per cent of male bisexuals had sex with animals, compared with three per cent of male heterosexuals. As lesbian activist Sara Cohen puts it: “What’s wrong with a little bestiality?”
To our basic and important questions:
- How will society respond when zoophiliacs start clamoring for their “rights”?
- How will society respond to After the Ball-type efforts to normalize zoophilia and demonize those who disapprove of it?
- How will society respond to a future well-funded marriage “equality” effort for zoophiliacs.
- If someone were to donate to an organization that prohibits hiring of zoophiliacs, will this donor be fired?
- Will the expression of disapproval of zoophilia be deemed bullying or hate speech?
- How will schools respond to requests to start pro-zoophilia clubs to support students who experience unwanted zoophilia feelings and who seek to come out of the zoophiliac closet? Will the Day of Silence expand to include zoophiliacs?
- Will therapies to help minors change their unwanted zoophilia desires be banned?
- Will “zoophiliac orientation” be added to enumerated anti-discrimination policies and laws?
- Will the letter Z be added to the LGBTQIA (etc.) abbreviation?
- Will we see prime time television programs and movies with lovable zoophilia-oriented characters?
- Will wannabe zoophiliac journalists form professional journalism associations (such as this one) to monitor and exploit the Fourth Estate in the service of breaking down barriers and normalizing zoophilia?
- Will zoophiliacs join “pride parades”?
- Will loud and proud zoophiliacs “out” those who prefer to remain in the zoophiliac closet?
Up next we’ll take a look at another example of the ways people experience “intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, or individuals.” If America is to be truly free, shouldn’t all sexcentric-identified individuals be treated equally under the law?
