Alfred Kinsey, Alan Turing, and sex laws
Who's the victim?
Pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey was born 127 years ago today.
"The history of medicine proves that in so far as man seeks to know himself and face his whole nature, he has become free from bewildered fear, despondent shame, or arrant hypocrisy. As long as sex is dealt with in the current confusion of ignorance and sophistication, denial and indulgence, suppression and stimulation, punishment and exploitation, secrecy and display, it will be associated with a duplicity and indecency that lead neither to intellectual honesty nor human dignity." - Alfred Kinsey (June 23-1894-August 25, 1956)
Today is also the 108th birthday of England's Alan Turing, who cracked the German Enigma Code, hastened Allied victory in World War II, and fathered modern computing.
In 1952, Turing was convicted for indecency. His crime was homosexual activity in his own home. To avoid prison, he was required to undergo chemical castration, and he passed away in 1954. The inquest's verdict was suicide, but that has been disputed.
In any case, Turing was a victim of a society whose laws reflected double-mindedness on sex, as described by Kinsey above. Today, laws against consensual homosexual conduct have been repealed or struck down in most if not all Western democracies. Turing was posthumously pardoned along with all men convicted of homosexual acts in the UK.
I think greater toleration of diversity in sexual orientation should be applauded. That's a victory for equality.
It isn't, however, a victory for liberty.
Because, while the taboo against homosexuality is lifting in Western societies, other taboos remain enshrined in law.
Prostitution, after all, is still illegal in most jurisdictions. Although, like Turin's homosexual conduct, it has no victims.
As long as consensual activity between adults remains illegal, our society remains intellectually dishonest. It doesn't value human dignity.
The bodies of other people don't belong to you or to the State, and shouldn't be subject to the moral opinions of a democratic majority.
Only those who've proven that they're a threat to others should be in prison. Nobody else.
James Leroy Wilson writes from Nebraska. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter. If you enjoy his articles, subscribe and exchange value for value. You may contact James for your writing, editing, and research needs: jamesleroywilson-at-gmail.com. Permission to reprint is granted with attribution.
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