14th March
22:27 GMT +1
"No."
"I can s-.
"
"No."
"Overg-.
"
"
No."
"Angelika-.
"
"
How is your society so degenerate that a good woman like Aunty Gerri is… Infected with these filthy habits?"
"Simply put, we-
" Mostly.
"-don't regard them as filthy or degenerate. I mean, what logical-.
"
"What d
jgkh-?" She
shudders, taking a moment to compose herself. I really have to admire her presence of mind; she's had to do that a
lot today, but even being confronted by the idea that the woman who's become her mother-substitute was homosexual all along she's trying to respond coherently and rationally. "Logical. Yes. How do they have children?"
"In vitro fertilisation. Or they adopt.
" I shrug.
"Come on, I
know kryptonians had exo-wombs. I don't believe for a moment that Earth Ten doesn't have technology for assisting reproduction.
"
She shakes her head. "We could probably perform such procedures but we do not use the technology like
that. If it cannot breed then it does not
deserve to breed."
"Oh."
She glares at me. "What do you mean '
oh'?"
"Kon hasn't.. exactly
asked, but it.. seemed… He wouldn't be able to have children with M'gann
anyway. I.. had wondered how you squared superheroing with… '
Children, church and kitchen'.
"
"Women aren't
that limited. Ariosophists
like strong women. And the fact that I cannot have children does not unduly trouble me. We do not sterilise war veterans who lost limbs in honourable battle in the way we do people born without them due to genetic flaws. I lost the ability to bear children but my race gained knowledge of kryptonian genetics. Mine was an honourable sacrifice."
"Your men-.
"
"Karl could sire children on any healthy kryptonian woman. It does not apply."
"And most lesbians
could reproduce through conventional sex with a man if they wanted to. And I imagine that prior to the invention of assisted reproduction technology.. some
did. I've personally helped thirty one lesbian couples have children or become pregnant-.
"
"If they are having-" She frowns. "-sex with you then they are hardly
lesbians."
"Ah, no, sorry, I meant that I've used my ring to assist them, merging genetic material and triggering cell division.
"
Which is not to say that I haven't had… Offers. Some of which included Jade. I'm
pretty sure that she'd never go for it.
"Besides, one man causing that many pregnancies amongst an isolated population would be terrible for genetic diversity.
"
"Please repeat that?"
I frown.
"Besides… One man causing.. that many pregnancies amongst a isolated population would be.. terrible for genetic diversity?
"
"So perhaps you should add negroes and Jews to it? Have you been educated into believing that you need genes from degenerates in order to remain
healthy?"
"Ah-. Not exactly, but genetic errors tend to be expressed far less in diverse populations.
"
"Just
sterilise the people carrying them."
"That seems a little extreme.
"
"Does 'diversity'
prevent genetic errors from being expressed, even when only unrelated people reproduce?"
"Ah, no, not completely. We don't-.
"
"Sterilisation does, when combined with mandatory genetic screening."
"We don't have the technology to screen like that. But we're getting off the point, unless your Earth has discovered an underlying genetic basis for homosexuality.
"
"What
is the point?" She turns away. "In a few days, either your Justice League will send me back, or the New Statesmen will have come to recover me. You will not 'turn' me in that time, and I doubt that I will have turned
you."
"The.. point is that we told Mrs Brauer that we'd meet her, and we're going to be late.
"
"So-. Wait, she is married? You told me that she is only interested in women!"
I don't remember what Germany Prime's stance on gay marriage was, but here it's been legal since the noughties.
"German law allows two
people to marry. Whether they're a man and a woman or two of either is only significant if they want a church wedding.
"
Angelika appears to be uncertain what to make of that. Either that, or she's about to vomit, but we're over countryside here so that won't matter too much.
"Gay people are no more inherently liberal than straight people. If given the opportunity to form near-conventional romantic relationships, most will go for it. I mean, what do your schools teach about Ernst Röhm?
"
"Who?"
"Member of the German Workers' Party? Commanded the Sturmabteilung? Took over the War Ministry during the Beer Hall Putsch? Got purged when the National Socialists went mainstream?
"
"Are you implying that he may have been homosexual?"
"I'm not implying anything; I'm directly stating it. As I understand, he was pretty open about it. It was public knowledge at the time. And he was still a member of the National Socialist party because it didn't have a hard line on sexual orientation at the time and he agreed with everything else.
" Hm.
"You know, you
could take a copy of our archives back with you. Everything your Germania has chosen to forget. I mean… If you're sure that you're right, what's the harm in getting more primary sources?
"
"Sometimes the purity-. The purity of the state must be preserved by impure means."
"Meaning?
"
"The criminal terrorists I fight often have friends and families. Some of whom knew nothing of their illegal activities. People who would mourn their loss, and beg for clemency. It would be 'nice' to be able to grant it, but all that would do is release a criminal to commit more crimes. So I don't dwell on it. I don't hear petitions. And I don't record that someone I tore in half was considered to be 'a friendly, regular sort of guy' in official reports, because people will read those and may reach the false conclusion that terrorism is what friendly, regular sorts of guy
do."
"And is having sex with other women something that national heroines do?
"
She gives her head a small shake. "No."
"Then how do you intend to explain-?
"
"Overman-. I'm sure that he knows. And… If
my Aunty Gerri is… Then I will not talk about it. I will not report it. And I will bear talking to your
Mrs Brauer as I have borne everything else here."