DISCLAIMER: i am not a homophobe, i have gay friends and have supported gay rights for many years.
in Gerald's view, there is male and female in nature and in the divine, so logically it should be one man and one woman together. two genders is not balanced and harmonious, so it cannot work. it isn't sinful, it's just you need to have a male and female aspect in everything to survive, not only to make life, but as i said, we need to be balanced, to have all yin or all yang won't work. that's why Gardener didn't agree with homosexuality.
that being said mind, there are many cases in nature of animals mating with the same gender. the highest being in bats. my friend loved to tell people about the lesbian lizard, there's a breed of lizard in New Mexico called the Whiptail, or Lesbian Lizard, because the farmers of New Mexico tried to kill the lizards, so they wiped out all the males, but instead this all female breed survived, they lay unfertilized eggs after mating and somehow the eggs hatch.the lizard adapted and learned how to asexually reproduce. so technically homosexuality does not go against nature, you just need to work on getting both aspects in balance. but that's something everyone needs to work on so i'm sad Gardner never saw that lol.
I'm gay myself and I researched that there was an alternative way to perform the "great rite". It used a chalice of wine and an athame. I can't really remember much of it myself.
Perhaps it was refering in speak of being a homosexual, that if you were one then you have turned your back on the Wiccan way and deserve a Christian Hell instead?
"And if any break these laws, even under torture, The Curse of the Goddess shall be upon them, so they never be reborn on earth, And may the remain where they belong, in the Hell of the Christians."
I don't know about you, but that sounds a lot more like "you actually go to hell" rather than "you deserve hell, but can't go there because it's fake."
But as earlier stated, Homosexuality is completely natural and it is rediculous to critisize one for being who they are. Also, my earlier post was refering to 'The Godesses Curse' in case I was confusing with my vagueness.
"Homosexuality is completely natural and it is rediculous to critisize one for being who they are."
It is, and I don't know any Wiccans who actually follow the Ordains. It's just that after what you said I wanted to make it clear that the Ordains seem pretty clear on rule-breaking witches going to hell, not just deserving it.
Thanks for clearing things up, I really dislike people who agree blindly with others. Although what you said was closer to what I actually ment, I am not so good with typed words than I am with said wit.....
I think it is important to remember that Gardner's views on homosexuality were colored by the time and place in which he was writing. Homosexuality WAS frowned upon in mid-20th century Britain and certainly in Gardner's generation. Times have changed greatly since then, and the homophobia of Gardner's day is no longer a part of most Traditional or eclectic Wiccan practices.