Reverend Luiz Fernando Pereira Garupe
EMAÚS MCC
São Paulo, BRAZIL

translated from the Portuguese by Geraldine Wright

Behaving like a man or a woman is not simply a matter of natural tendencies. It is a socio-cutural learning process filled with the fragility of the boundaries of the sexes. A thing which seems so simple and so easy, and guided by nature - to be of one sex - manifests itself to us as something complex, delicate and demanding.

A child is born! A boy or a girl? Biologically the response is immediate. From the social and psychological point of view this response will result in a process of assimilating the roles and functions attributed by society to each of the sexes.

There are those who insist on attributing to biology the capacity to define in this area. However, the evidence is otherwise. To take a position in terms of gender, in other words, in terms of the relation of social sex to biological sex, is a construction. We are fundamentally beings of learning. The animal most unequipped for survival is the human being, and for this reason he/she must learn, a lot, throughout his/her entire life.

To be born a man or a woman is, in the first place, a call to humility, for we are halves. We are not the "human being". Our great challenge is, even though half, to become whole. That is, to become people, subjects and authors of the richness of the interaction between intellect and desire. The basic condition of this is to construct an identity which gives consistency and justification to the name which is transmitted to us as a mandate of identity. To identify ourselves is to have a place recognized as ours in the groups to which we belong - family, school, work and church. But also, in terms even grander, in the global village, the vast community of our equals.

What is the role of gender in this identity? There can be many answers to this question. However, it is important to question ourselves about the always new, yet old, dilemmas, such as the decisions relating to love within the prerogatives of the personal identity. Is it abnormal or immoral to find pleasure in or feel attraction for someone of the same sex? In reality, what is relevant for the child of a human couple is that he/she be happy, responsible and respectful of others. Does it make us happy to love someone of the same sex? By chance, is it easy to love someone of the opposite sex, and does it give you happiness? In view of the perspectives and characteristics of our behavior as sexual people, why don't we place ourselves in a position more open and less rigid? We are living through a transition and new times with respect to the reproductive functions, and based on this, the current sexual grammer is established. All the more so since we live in an era in which we dream of democracy and are aware of differences in equality. We repudiate any form of domination, particualarly baring the thousands of years of domination of man over woman.

In this vein, why not reserve our aggressive potential for attacking what is really harmful in the world, like ignorance, hunger and suffering, ugliness and violence, uniting to erode the atttempt to prove that heterosexuality is the only adequate and legitimate conduct of love between two people?

May many other reflections in the sphere of masculine and feminine be produced, in order to reduce suffering, but especially to make this world a positive place for all. Why don't we ourselves get started?

The author of this material is Reverend Luiz Fernando Pereira Garupe, pastor of Emaús Metropolitan Community Church in São Paulo, Brazil.