"I'm homosexual... How and why are idle questions. It's a little like wanting to know why my eyes are green"

Jean Genet’s assertion about his homosexuality draws a compelling parallel between sexual orientation and a natural, inherited trait like eye color. By associating being homosexual with having green eyes, Genet dismantles the impulse to rationalize or justify one’s intrinsic identity. His words suggest that trying to discover “how” or “why” a person is homosexual is as pointless as questioning the color of someone’s eyes. Both are facts of existence, not choices or outcomes of deliberate action, and they do not demand a cause for validation.

The distinction he draws resists the presumption that queerness requires explanation while other aspects of personal identity do not. In the context of the times Genet lived, when society often sought psychological, moral, or medical explanations for homosexuality, his stance is defiant and liberating. He refuses pathologization or apology; there is neither guilt nor mystery attached to his orientation. “Idle questions” hints at the futility and, perhaps, the implicit disrespect in probing someone’s nature as if it were an abnormality or a puzzle to solve.

This approach recognizes sexuality as innate, comparable to physical characteristics, and therefore beyond the realm of choice, correction, or shouldering of responsibility. Embedded in his words is a meta-commentary on society’s need to rationalize what it deems different, often at the expense of dignity and self-acceptance. Genet’s framing transforms what others might perceive as an oddity into something unremarkable, a simple facet of existence, not worthy of scrutiny.

By refusing to satisfy such inquisitions, Genet encourages a perspective shift: acceptance and understanding must be rooted in recognition, not analysis. He elevates lived experience above theorizing, insisting on the validity and ordinariness of his identity. Ultimately, his words gesture towards a broader liberation, inviting everyone to contemplate how some aspects of ourselves are not explanations to be dissected, but realities to be acknowledged and honored.