Hirschfeld: Where would we be without gay people?

Monday, December 8, 2008

Penguins always had a gay look to them. The waddle was a dead giveaway.

When I recently found out that a gay penguin couple in a zoo was attempting to steal eggs from straight penguins and replacing them with rocks, I had to chuckle.

The gay penguins were fenced off from the others, which I had no problem with. The gay penguins could have harmed the eggs and disrupted the hatching cycle.

What I had a problem with was a comment left by a user on the news story. The user stated that there was no reason for these penguins to even be in the zoo anymore because they were not contributing to the penguin population by having eggs of their own.

Homosexuality, though, has contributed more to society (and the animal kingdom, for that matter) than offspring. I can’t speak for the animal kingdom, but for society, many gay people were indispensable.

The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, might have had less of an effect on civil rights. Bayard Rustin was the principle organizer for the march.

The Disney movies “Aladdin,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast” might have been less magical without the lyrics of Howard Ashman, who died from complications from AIDS at 40.

World War II could have lasted just a little longer, killing that many more people. Alan Turing was head of Hut 8 for a part of WWII and broke many of the Nazis’ naval codes to help end the war.

As hypothetical as these situations are, these gay people nevertheless contributed to these events in history that people of all sexualities have benefited from.

Obviously their straight counterparts could have organized the March on Washington, composed the music of Disney films, cracked German codes, tackled Ford’s assassin and penned plays and books, but it’s impossible to determine how effectual or influential those acts or works would have been.

After all, I’m sure it was gay penguins that taught all penguins that fabulous waddle.

— — Hirschfeld is a Augusta senior in journalism.

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