A little over a month ago, two high-profile folks in the music industry got into an interesting argument about the place of homosexuality in our culture. And I think it’s a conversation that deserves a bit more scrutiny: What it says about our society is pretty telling … though not in the way it might seem on the surface.
In an interview with the gay-advocacy magazine Out, Maroon 5 frontman (and judge on the first season of NBC’s singing competition The Voice) Adam Levine took Fox’s competing program American Idol to task for allegedly muzzling its contestants when it came to speaking about their sexual orientation. He said:
What's always p---ed me off about Idol is wanting to mask [homosexuality], for that to go unspoken. C'mon. You can't be publicly gay? At this point? On a singing competition? Give me a break. You can't hide basic components of these people's lives. The fact that The Voice didn't have any qualms about being completely open about it is a great thing.
A day later, American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance executive producer Nigel Lythgoe fired back at Levine in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. Not only did he essentially dismiss Levine’s accusations, he suggested that people’s sexuality is their own business and really doesn’t have anything to do with an appearance on a reality TV competition:
To be frank, I didn't understand why we're talking about contestants being gay or not gay. I don't go into my dentist and say, 'Are you gay?' I don't say to contestants on So You Think You Can Dance, 'Are you gay?' What does it got to do with me? What does it got to do with anybody? When does privacy stop in this country? If somebody wants to say they're gay, it's up to them. You don't expect us to turn around and say, 'Are you gay?' Why would we do that? … There's no reason that I would see why anybody that goes on television should start coming out with who they are, what they are, what their sexuality is, who they're going to vote for or what their religion is.
Now, at first blush, these two influential men seem to be staking out pretty different philosophical positions. Dig a bit deeper, however, and I think they actually share more common ground than it initially appears.
Levine seems to be arguing that, in 2011, homosexuality has become so mainstream that there’s no reason to try to hide it. Reading between the lines just a bit, he’s saying that a person’s sexual identity and choices are their business alone, thus beyond criticism or condemnation from anyone. At the root of his argument—and our culture’s approach to sexuality in general—is that it’s nobody’s business but the individual’s.
Ironically, that’s exactly what Lythgoe is saying too, even though he’s coming at it from the opposite direction. Our sexual choices and identity, he’s saying, are nobody’s business but our own. And they don’t have anything to do with other areas of our lives—so why would we worry about them or talk about them? To him, the sexual identity of his contestants is a nonissue because, as he says, it’s none of his business. Or anyone else’s.
In essence, then, both Levine and Lythgoe believe the same thing about the place of sexual activity in someone’s life: The individual is the sovereign owner of his or her sexual choices—whatever they may be—and those choices are sacrosanct, above conversation or criticism.
For Levine, that means there’s all sorts of freedom to be out and proud about homosexuality without having to worry whether bystanders approve. For Lythgoe, sexuality is an individual matter that’s neatly compartmentalized, safely out of view. But make no mistake: The individual’s opinion is the only one who matters here.
But is it? Not according to Scripture. Sexuality isn’t just our business, but a gift—and directive—from God. I’ll expand on that a little tomorrow.
Read Part 2.
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