Tales of Midbar: Religious Intolerance

Everybody gathered in Minris theater to see the trial. Even Ardorin was there, dressed in a way that was colorful and flamboyant even for him. He was seated at the top of the amphitheater between a scantily-clad faharni woman and another faharni woman who was dressed smartly. The plan had been for the beginner school children to come as a group but after the chaos of the last two light cycles, I was seated with the other Winemakers, near the bottom, to one side. The lawyers still weren’t sure if they’d be needing me and Breeze to testify so we were placed so we could be summoned without it being too conspicuous. It was rare for trials to be held in Minris, criminals were normally taken to Taunbrit for trial, which was why we didn’t have a proper courthouse.

It was the morning of the third day of the light cycle so it was blue day, making everything look cold and ominous. Perhaps this should have been a warning. I’d seen a number of shows on the internet that involved trials and we’d had a couple of lessons about it at school so I recognised the judge and adjudicators as they took their places. On one side of them was Lishrashic and his lawyer. On the other was the prosecution lawyer. The judge called for quiet, the theatre, said to date from before the Cataclysm, had excellent acoustics, and everybody stopped chatting.

“Now,” said the judge, “this is a special session as the defendant has a spell on him that prevents him from leaving Minris. The charges are two counts of attempted child rape, two counts of kidnapping and forcible confinement, two counts of child sexual abuse, one count of use of Old Magic and one count of cruelty to animals. Does the defendant wish to confess?”

“Firstly,” said Lishrashic’s lawyer, “I’m aware that my client is highly unpopular in this town and has angered a certain religious group which is thought to include multiple psychics, magi and a magis. Additionally he’s unable to leave, as you, yourself stated. Therefore, I would like to request that in the event of an acquittal, he be given police protection until the situation significantly improves.”

“Granted,” said the judge, “seeing that it’s probably a moot point anyway.”

“My client wishes to confess but claims extenuating circumstances.”

“I fail to see what can excuse the alleged actions.”

“I shall explain that.”

“As we have a claim of extenuating circumstances, we’ll reverse the normal order and hear the defense case first. Call your first witness!”

“I’d like to call Dr. Wumlit!”

A faharni man I didn’t recognise took his place on the witness dias. I was close enough to tell that he was a nibey.

“Now doctor,” said Lishrashic’s lawyer. “Can you explain your area of expertise?”

“I’m a psycho-geneticist specializing in the genetics of sexuality.”

“What is your assessment of my client?”

“He’s a fetishstic non-incestuous pedophile. He targets children who are not members of his family and likes performing sex acts in a somewhat ritualistic way, particularly basing them around Temple Prostitution. He even married a former Temple Prostitute.”

“What is the genetic basis of this?”

“Well it’s one of many manifestations of sexual non-specificity syndrome that’s caused by the X 4123 minus gene. This gene is recessive and on the X chromosome and is present in about five percent of men, meaning that the syndrome is also present in about twenty five out of ten thousand women. It generally makes people less fussy about the circumstances under which they’d have sex. By this I mean that most humans, like all higher Earth animals, have a natural, genetically controlled preference to have consensual sex with adult members of the opposite sex of their own species. Most people also prefer their own korbar. This syndrome causes people to deviate from that but it can manifest itself in many ways. It’s rather like the polydactylism gene which is common in faharnis although that’s dominant and autosomal. What I mean is that, as I’m sure you know, some polydactyls have an extra toe, others an extra finger some both or multiple extra fingers and toes. A few people have the gene but have ten fingers and ten toes. With sexual non-specificity syndrome some people who have the gene seem perfectly normal. Some are merely a bit kinky, perhaps wanting to have sex that’s slightly odd or liking partners who are ugly, or deformed or something. Some are promiscuous, homosexual, bisexual, heterokorbarsexual, rapists, pedophiles and beastiophiles.”

“Which is why scripture associates homosexuality with gang rape,” said Ice under her breath.

“So you’re saying that pedophiles and homosexuals are basically the same thing?” asked the lawyer.

“Different manifestations of the same syndrome, yes.”

“My client attacks girls, surely that means that he isn’t homosexual.”

“He does have the gene, and, of course, has only one X chromosome. It’s been shown that four percent of pedophiles are homosexual, which is a positive correlation between the two types of behaviour as only two percent of the general male population is homosexual.”

“Most high profile pedophilia cases involve men molesting boys,” said Ice, quietly.

“So do you believe that pedophiles should be given the same sort of legal rights as homosexuals?” asked the lawyer.

“Oh, yes, definitely. I think society has long recognised this although it doesn’t like to admit it. Trulism has, since time immemorial, provided children as Temple Prostitutes to allow pedophiles to indulge their desires in a controlled and safe situation. This seems to have some hard-wired psychological basis as priests of most types, especially Love Priests, wear unusual, flamboyant, clothing much like pimps of street prostitutes. I believe I can see an example up there.” He pointed to Ardorin. “Trulism possitively encourages heterokorbarsexuality in that it discorages psychics from marrying each other and most Temple Prostitutes are psychic. The prophet Nuhar was a pedophile and Nuhara allows men to marry young girls, which is necessary as they practice polygamy but about the same number of boys as girls are born, so they partly compensate for this by having girls start their sex lives at a younger age, however they also have a large number of frustrated young men, probably accounting for their noted propensity for violence. Our society allows anybody to get married once they’ve reached puberty, ostensibly in order to allow people with a short life expectancy to reproduce but I suspect it’s also to help pedophiles.”

“But Winemakerism doesn’t have Temple Prostitutes?”

“That’s correct. They even forbid dressing like the opposite sex, presumably a reaction against Love Priests.”

“So, unlike the other religions, they don’t see the need to cater to pedophiles?”

“I believe one sect had a practice of allowing priests to practice pedophilia but this was clamped down on, or perhaps covered up, once it became public knowledge. I don’t claim to understand the reasoning of Winemaker leaders, let alone the writers of their scriptures, which clearly condemn extra-marital sex in all forms but especially makes a point of outlawing Temple Prostitutes. Of course this religion is also notoriously orientationist.”

“Does the law allow them to get away with this sort of discrimination?”

“Unfortunately yes.”

“Why is that?”

“Shortly after the Cataclysm, when the Pax constitution was first draughted to bring peace to our land, we guaranteed equal rights for all and freedom of religion. However, some homosexuals took to filing orientationism suits against Winemakers and the Winemakers complained that this constituted religious discrimination. Of course nobody cared because it was just Winemakers. Then the homosexuals tried doing the same thing with Nuharas, who are also orientationist, and others objected to Trulists having Temple Prostitutes, and the law had to be changed to allow the organisations who control Holy Sites to practice discrimination internally.”

“Do you think that changing the law to, for example, force the Vineyard to provide Temple Prostitutes, would help.”

“It would have avoided this present problem but laws have to apply to everybody so it would have to be very carefully worded so we don’t get lots of women being forced into street prostitution or have rampant infringement of religious freedom.”

Then it was the prosecution’s turn to question the witness.