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Do gay people have a special role to play in the world? Gerald Heard thought so. Heard (1889-1971) was an Anglo-Irish polymath who believed that humans were in the process of evolving into a higher species, and that we isophyls played an important part in that evolution. Isophyl was Heard's invented term for homosexual, a word he invented from the Greek roots iso 'same' and phyl 'liking, attraction'.

Heard argued that one of the most things that distinguishes humans from other species is our prolonged childhoods (a characteristic the biologists call neotony). While most other species reach sexual maturity after only a year or two of childhood, we humans have extended that period of flexibility for almost two decades. "Play, curiosity, wonder, and creativity" were largely lost in other animals, but remained in adult humans. And in adult gays and lesbians more so than in heterosexuals.

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His reasoning worked this way: the decline of creativity in other animals is associated with taking up a fixed role on the biological assembly line; because gays and lesbians were freed of reproduction, they could work to help society in a spiritual evolution to the next stage. As Heard wrote, "The isophyl is a further develo pment of that human power to put off settling down-- the resiliency that makes man civilizable. If our society is to progress... it must be manned by at least some members who... can keep young."

Another factor in the special suitability of the isophyl towards the progress of humanity lies in the androgynous characteristics that some gay men and lesbians show. Heard believed that strict gender roles interfered with flexible and innovative thought, and that the isophyl could move beyond the rigidity of traditional masculinity and femininity.

Heard explored these ideas in the early gay rights magazine ONE around 1954, but he was not successful at attracting others to his complex philosophy. He was later associated with the hippies and with the use of psychedelics as a means of spiritual growth, and more recently there has been a renewed appreciation of Heard's thought within Radical Faerie circles.

Miss Poubelle can't agree with Heard's overall idea about the aim of human evolution, because she doesn't believe evolution has aims. But translated to a somewhat less lofty plane, there are aspects of his thinking that seem right. In a time when gay parenting is ever more prominent as an issue, it is worth spending some time thinking about why it is valuable for many of us not to have children.

Of course, good parenting is indispensable and something our society needs. But parenting also takes energies that were once directed towards society in general and turns them towards the nuclear family instead. Parents with young children are far less likely to be able to participate in political action, act in community theater, volunteer at hospices, go to poetry writing workshops, or throw kick-ass dinner parties. And a vibrant, interesting society needs all these things too.

Instead of buying into the idea that our lives are not complete without being parents, shouldn't we isophyls consider the possibility-- tragically overlooked by the parents of so many on the planet today-- that we could make the world a better place by remaining childless?