欧美名人演讲 第56期:同性恋与道德的关系(3)

 　　What about the other side of this contrast? Sexual orientation¹.

　　我们接着谈另一个问题：性的取向。

　　I have a certain sexual orientation.

　　我有着某种性取向。

　　What is that?

　　它是什么呢？

　　I'm attracted to people of a particular gender². That's true.

　　我会被某种性别的人吸引，没错。

　　I'm also attracted to people of a particular age range, body type, personality type, certain kinds of senses of humor.

　　我同时也会被某个年龄段的人吸引，被某种身材、个性的人吸引，别有着某种特定幽默感的人吸引。

　　All of these things make up my sexual orientation, broadly understood.

　　凡此种种，组成了我的性取向。这大家都能理解。

　　But when we talk about sexual orientation, we focus very narrowly on the gender of people that you're attracted to, and then we divide everyone into these nice, neat categories.

　　但是当人们谈到性取向的时候，却往往聚焦在非常窄的一点上--吸引你的人的性别，然后人们就把所有人轻松地分了类：

　　There are heterosexual people, and there are homosexual people.

　　异性恋和同性恋。

　　Then there are bisexual people, and they mess up our neat categories!

　　哎呀，怎么冒出个双性恋来，这不是给我们的分类工作增加难度嘛！

　　Everywhere I go, people say to me, "I just don't understand bisexuality."

　　每次我走到什么地方都有人问我："我搞不懂双性恋这东西？"

　　Let me take a little time to explain it; it's not a complicated concept, really.

　　我花点时间解释几句，这不是什么复杂的概念。

　　Some people are attracted to both men and women.

　　有些人同时被男人和女人吸引。

　　That's it!

　　就这么简单！

　　It doesn't mean they're attracted to everyone.

　　这并不意味着他们会见谁爱谁。

　　That'd be exhausting.

　　那会累死的。

　　It doesn't mean they're confused.

　　这也不意味着他们会搞不清楚自己的情感。

　　It doesn't mean that gender is not important to them.

　　也不意味着性别对他们不重要。

　　It doesn't mean any of those things.

　　以上都不是。

　　It just means it's not an overriding³ factor in what makes people attractive to them.

　　这仅仅意味着对双性恋来说，吸引他们的人究竟是男是女，并不是个决定性因素。

　　And I mention this because many of the same problems faced by gay and lesbian people in our society are faced by bisexual people.

　　我之所以提到这一点，是因为我们社会中的男女同性恋者常常碰到的问题，双性恋者也会碰到。

　　Bisexual people are not half kicked out of the house or half fired from their jobs or half harassed⁴ for being bisexual.

　　双性恋者不会被"半逐出家门"或者"半解雇"，也不会因为性取向而被"半骚扰"，他们遭受的对待是相同的。

　　I'm going to be focusing on homosexuality tonight, but much of what I say can be applied⁵ with the appropriate changes to bisexuality.

　　今晚我主要谈同性恋的话题，但是我今晚谈到的大部分观点，也都适用于双性恋。

　　Finally, in the years that I've been doing this, a number of people have made the comment, at least in the early years, I started doing this in Texas in the early 90's, and people said to me, "You know, your approach seems so negative.

　　我的工作始于90年代早期的德克萨斯州。在我多年的工作中，特别是近几年，常会碰到很多人有这样的说法："你做事的方式似乎有点负面。

　　You're always talking about the arguments against homosexuality.

　　你总是讨论那些对同性恋的负面论点。

　　Why don't you ever give an argument in favor of homosexuality?"

　　为什么从来没见你提出过支持同性恋的正面论点呢？"

　　I say, "You know, that's a good idea."

　　我的回答是：好主意！

　　So, I want to start with a kind of preliminary argument in favor of homosexuality.

　　那我就从一个最基础的支持同性恋的论点开始说起。

　　Preliminary argument, there's a lot more to be said, but, in a way, the preliminary argument is quite simple:

　　只是个基本的论点，要说的很多，不过某种程度上说，这个基本的论点也很简单：

　　Homosexual relationships make some people happy.

　　同性恋情感关系能让一部分人幸福。

1 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 overriding   

a.最主要的

参考例句：

• Development is of overriding importance. 发展是硬道理
• My overriding concern is to raise the standards of state education. 我最关心的是提高国民教育水平。

4 harassed   

adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He has complained of being harassed by the police. 他投诉受到警方侵扰。
• harassed mothers with their children 带着孩子的疲惫不堪的母亲们

5 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。