more easily socially tolerate homosexual liaisons, which the Hebrews apparently did. See discussion of David and Jonathan, p. 134.
dominance produces: the lust for forced sex. Directing that lust
toward women, and trying to regulate which women, made the
lust produced by male dominance work in behalf of male dominance, not against it so that it would collapse of its own sexual weight. In the Hebrew system, adultery and some other sexual
transgressions of the familial pact were genuinely construed to be
as bad as male homosexuality. There is no special repudiation of
male homosexuality in the laws of Leviticus. There is no special
punishment for it, though the punishment is death. There is no
special characterization of the one who commits the act: he is not
different in kind or degree from those who break other sexual prohibitions and are judged to deserve death by stoning.
The fact that the Hebrews attributed no special significance to
the prohibition against male homosexuality in Leviticus and had no
strictly sexual repugnance for the act is revealed and underscored
by Maimonides’ explication of the law, which will no doubt astonish modern readers:
In the case of a man who lies with a male, or causes a male
to have connection with him, once sexual contact has been initiated, the rule is as follows: If both are adults, they are punishable by stoning, as it is said, Thou shalt not lie with a male
(Lev. 18: 22), i. e. whether he is the active or the passive participant in the act. If he is a minor, aged nine years and one day, or older, the adult who has connection with him, is punishable
by stoning, while the minor is exempt. I f the minor is nine years
old, or less, both are exempt. It behooves the court, however, to have the adult flogged for disobedience, inasmuch as he has
lain with a male, even though with one less than nine years of
age. 13 (Italics mine)
The Hebrews wanted the perpetuation of male dominance. A male
child under nine did not have male status. Sex with that male child
did not count as a homosexual act. Maimonides takes it on himself
to remind the court that the child is male—though not male
enough to warrant the real protection provided by capital punishment as a deterrent, which is what the death sentence was in the Hebrew system. The rules governing judgments of guilt were so
strict in actual practice that it is unlikely that capital punishment
could have been invoked for private, consensual sexual acts of any
sort. It was the intrusion of sex into the larger society that concerned the Hebrews. A male child under nine, at any rate, did not warrant that protection because he was not yet part of the ruling
class of men.
Sim ilarly, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah shows that it is
essential to male power (to the power of men as a class) to protect
men from the sexual lust of other men— to protect men from
forced sex by putting women in their place. No legal piety interferes with protecting men from homosexual assault by other men (in the story of Sodom, homosexual gang rape). The story of
Sodom is meant to show that when the simple mechanical strategy
of using women, not men, as targets for nonconsensual sex breaks
down entirely, a patriarchal society w ill be destroyed. So God ordains; so the Old Testament describes: and it is an accurate assessment of the importance of keeping women the objects of forced sex so that men w ill not be subjected to it and need not fear it.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah begins with a conversation
between God and Abraham: God says that “[b]ecause the cry of
Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know” (Genesis 18: 20-21). Abraham asks God if he will
destroy Sodom if there are fifty righteous men in the city. God
promises that if there are fifty, he w ill spare the city. Abraham,
after a few more interchanges, gets God to promise: “I w ill not
destroy it for ten’s sake” (Genesis 18: 32). Two angels go to Sodom,
where Lot bows down to them and offers them hospitality: safety
in his home, washing of the feet, unleavened bread:
But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men
of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young,
all the people from every quarter:
And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the
men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us,
that we may know them.
And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door
after him.
And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known
man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye
to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
Genesis 19: 4 -8
The crowd, “both old and young, all the people from every quarter, ” attacked; the angels who appeared as men pulled Lot inside to save him, and “they smote the men that w ere at the door of the
house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied
themselves to find the door” (Genesis 19: 11). The angels told Lot
to leave Sodom because they were going to destroy it. Lot told his
sons-in-law, but they did not believe him. In the morning, the
angels told Lot to take his wife and two unmarried daughters; he
lingered, the angels transported Lot and the women outside the
city. God told Lot to go into the mountains and not to look back;
Lot pleaded to be able to go to a nearby city; God said he would
spare that city for Lot’s sake: “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of
heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the
inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground”
(Genesis 19: 24-25). God remembered Lot, and spared him, and in
the wave of destruction of cities, God sent Lot into the mountains,
where Lot lived with his two daughters: “And the firstborn said
unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the
earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: Come,
let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that