Straight questionnaire passed around in Wisconsin high school
Filed by: Alex Blaze
December 6, 2008 5:30 PM
WND is going nuts over this heterosexuality questionnaire being handed out in a high school in Wisconsin:
What do you think caused your heterosexuality?
When and how did you decide you were a heterosexual?
Is it possible that your heterosexuality is just a phase you may grow out of?
Is it possible that your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of the same sex?
Do your parents know that you are straight? Do your friends and/or roommate(s) know? How did they react?
Why do you insist on flaunting your heterosexuality? Can't you just be who you are and keep it quiet?
Why do heterosexuals feel compelled to seduce others into their lifestyles?
A disproportionate majority of child molesters are heterosexual. So you consider it safe to expose children to heterosexual teachers?
With all the societal support marriage receives, the divorce rate is spiraling. Why are there so few stable relationships among heterosexuals?
Statistics show that lesbians have the lowest incidence of sexually transmitted diseases. Is it really safe for a woman to maintain a heterosexual lifestyle and run the risk of disease and pregnancy?
Considering the menace of overpopulation, how could the human race survive if everyone were heterosexual?
Would you want your child to be heterosexual, knowing the problems that s/he would face?
Jeremy Hooper notes that this questionnaire's been around for a while:
"The Heterosexual Questionnaire" was created by Dr. Martin Rochlin back in the '70s as a way of engaging folks in conversation about LGBT issues. Its questions all turn the tables on the sorts of queries that are usually posed to gay folks, asking heterosexuals to consider if maybe, just maybe, their own sexuality was, among other things, a curable choice. The hope is that these provocative questions will spark a rational discussion about gay folks and their role in society, and many institutions have employed the questionnaire as a valid learning tool.
I guess it's still a valid learning tool. While the intention is good, and there's no reason not to be asking these questions, it does seem to assume that everyone in the class is straight, which can't be the case, or else the questionnaire wouldn't be needed. But I'm guessing the queer kids would just get a good laugh out of it.
JMG worries about the continued backlash:
Expect, however, that this story will become yet another talking point in the "they're shoving it down our throats" litany of accusations against the LGBT movement. We ain't heard the last on this questionnaire, not by a LONG shot.
Yeah, well, anything we do will be used as evidence against us, and one more case won't change that. The more the merrier, really, since even if no one did anything to promote acceptance of queer people they'd still find stuff to complain about.
This one is particularly ingenious, though, since they can't complain about these questions without reprinting them. And isn't WND one of the forums where this questionnaire should be?
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3 Comments
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Pretty witty and funny. If the questionnaire had a little footnote at the bottom like "Now Replace Heterosexual with Homosexual...these are the questions GLBT people have to go through everyday." I think the lesson would have been more clear for the students.
Thor | December 6, 2008 7:27 PM
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I've seen versions of these questions over the many years I've been active in the LGBT community and I always find them amusing and--yes!--instructive.
And I agree with you, Alex: no matter what we do, our enemies will distort it to use against us. That consideration alone is not enough reason to shy away from it.
Brynn Craffey | December 6, 2008 8:57 PM
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I remember this questionnaire from when I was in college (ten years ago) and thought it was brilliant at the time. I still think it's pretty great, and I'd imagine (hope?) that anyone reading it would be able to see the irony right away. That said, I agree with Thor about the footnote, especially in a high school setting.
fourthwave | December 8, 2008 12:04 AM
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