SOLO Proudly Announces ...
by Lindsay Perigo
In SOLO's Credo I wrote that SOLO was not afraid to acknowledge that Ayn Rand was wrong about some things, and that homosexuality was one of them. I made it clear to anyone who cared to listen at the time that one of SOLO's first projects would be to exorcise the shocking homophobia that has disgraced the Objectivist movement since Day One - to expose it to the lights of day and reason, show it to be the grotesquery that it is and fiercely proclaim how alien it is to a philosophy that sets such store by the identification of reality.
I don't know who's worse in this regard - Ayn Rand for putting down homosexuals as "disgusting," or Leonard Peikoff (in his radio show on the subject) for evading the fact that she had said that and positing his own tortuous theory purporting to show that gays are not immoral but are necessarily damaged ... though if the damage is deep-seated enough then it's OK to acquiesce to it.
Sigh.
And so it gives me great pleasure to announce the first publication in the history of Objectivism to repudiate such psychological illiteracy, to acknowledge the emotional carnage it has wrought ... and to project a view of homosexuality informed by the facts of reality. SOLO is proud to present: "Ayn Rand, Homosexuality, and Human Liberation" by Chris Matthew Sciabarra. This is a revised, expanded and updated version, in monograph form, of the five-part series "Objectivism and Homosexuality" written by Dr. Sciabarra for my magazine, The Free Radical. In Chris's own words, he "explores Ayn Rand's impact on the sexual attitudes of self-identified Objectivists in the movement to which she gave birth and the gay subcultures that she would have disowned." His study "challenges Rand's conventional attitudes toward homosexuality and reclaims her legacy for a human liberation that is open to all rational men and women - of whatever sexual orientation."
While "Objectivism and Homosexuality" was being published in The Free Radical and on SOLOHQ.com, SOLO's Executive Director Joe Rowlands occasionally would receive inquiries along the lines of, "I've been reading SOLOHQ for a while, and talked to a friend about it. He said SOLO was just for homosexuals. Is that true?"
It most emphatically is not true. Most SOLOists, like most anything-else-ists, are heterosexual. (Being SOLOists, they are of course flamboyantly heterosexual, but heterosexual nonetheless!) Because Chris's articles were spread out over five bi-monthly issues, however, the impression may have been formed that SOLO was obsessed with the subject of homosexuality and was indeed "just for homosexuals." Well, there is already an Objectivist organisation "just for homosexuals" - the Rattigan Society, of which Chris writes in his monograph. SOLO, by contrast, is not a single-issue group with a single constituency. Its vision and mission are set out in its Credo and its Mission Statement. "Ayn Rand, Homosexuality and Human Liberation" just happens to be SOLO's first publication, and likely its last on this subject for some time. I for one am anxious to move on to other matters. The anti-homophobia part of our mission has, as far as I'm concerned, been accomplished. And a splendid thing that is, too. I congratulate Dr. Sciabarra on his achievement.
For more information about "Ayn Rand, Homosexuality and Human Liberation," including how to order, please go HERE.
Lindsay Perigo
Founder and Principal, SOLO
P.S. - The Foreword isn't too shabby either!
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