By: Abbey Fenbert
Posted: 11/28/07
NYU in Abu Dhabi is freaking me out. It's a little weird that someone could get a degree from New York University without leaving the United Arab Emirates. Higher on the WTF scale, there's the fact the UAE is governed partly by Islamic law, and "homosexual acts" are a crime that could earn you prison time or a regimen of forced hormone injections.Gay students only risk this prosecution if they leave the Academic Free Zone - the administration has made that clear. Peachy. NYUAD: The perfect place to relive your days in the closet.
But the admins put forth a more compelling argument. University spokesman John Beckman reminded us that in some NYU study abroad sites, such as Shanghai and Ghana, homosexual acts are more than frowned upon. Parts of the United States have been slow to overturn anti-sodomy laws. So why are we only getting hysterical about the rules of a Muslim country?
Maybe we're racists. Or maybe there's a difference between cultural homophobia - "two dudes kissing is icky" - and God Shall Strike You With His Fist, Degenerate Sons Of Sodom.
I'm not excusing any type of gay-bashing, god-inspired or not. But this is a religion column, and I want to examine the tangled, troubled history of queerness and faith.
God and the Gays have been enemy teams since before the destruction of Sodom and Gemorrah. According to the Sharia, a set of Islamic laws, homosexuality is punishable by death. Christianity has its own qualms. My new favorite website, GodTube.com, automatically filters out the word "gay" - though "fag" is allowed. And in Hebrew scriptures, "such a thing is an abomination." (Leviticus 18: 22)
You can also find anti-gay sentiment in Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, the Baha'i faith, Shinto, Sikhism, Jainism and Scientology.
Of course, some LGBT-accepting traditions have survived past classical Greek paganism (ah, the days of Sappho!). Wicca, Voodoo and Unitarian Universalism are pretty tolerant, and the more mainstream religions all have sects and members who say it's OK to be gay.
And if you look carefully, it's not hard to find the subversive queerness in the bowels of religion. Cough, Ted Haggert, cough.
Hiding between all the stone-the-gays laws and "cleanliness" precepts, there are some juicy tidbits to trigger your biblical gaydar. One of my favorites is in the Book of Judges. The Israelite judge Deborah is called the "wife of Lappidoth" (Judges 4:4). Lappidoth translates to "woman of fire."
Some take this to mean that Deborah, as a judge and prophetess, is herself a woman of fire. Maybe. Or maybe "wife of Lappidoth" means there was a woman named Lappidoth, and Deborah was her wife. You know. Just maybe.
At any rate, the Abrahamic tradition usually finds lesbianism less sinful than male homosexuality- it has to do with penetration and the seed and a bunch of gross things I have trouble picturing an all-powerful deity ruminating over.
But onto the New Testament. Jesus calls his disciples by saying, "I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:19)
All right, that's juvenile. But he proceeds to spend his days unmarried in the company of 12 dudes. And forget Mary Magdalene - the Gospel of John refers, several times, to "the disciple whom Jesus loved." During the Last Supper, he's "reclining at Jesus' side" and "lean[s] back against Jesus' chest." (John 13:23-24)
Ah, fascinating how the places gays are most hated are the places that often seem the very gayest - pages of scripture, football locker rooms, the army. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.
Of course, until my queer-friendly Bible commentary becomes standard, LGBT people in the UAE just have to be grateful they're not in Iran or Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is a capital offense.
To clarify, being gay isn't the crime - it's just getting caught doing ... You know, stuff. So I can quietly lust after Jennifer Connelly all I want, it's only when I start picturing her while kissing some chick that I'm rebelling against the state.
Queer people are used to hiding. To sticking to "safe zones." Beckman's right, it's nothing new. But New York University is a place that values freedom, newness and pluralism. It's been ranked "Most Accepting of the Gay Community" by the Princeton Review two years running. A degree from New York University should mean you've ventured outside of the bubble.
Is NYUAD worth abandoning that ideal?
But who knows. If you get sent to prison for getting it on with your "unnatural" partner, maybe Beckman or Sexton will bail you out.
Abbey Fenbert is a columnist. E-mail her at afenbert@nyunews.com.
© Copyright 2007 Washington Square News
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