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What is homosexuality? Homosexuality is the manifestation of sexual desire toward a member of one's own sex or the erotic activity with a member of the same sex. (The Greek word homos means "the same"). A lesbian is a female homosexual. More recently the term "gay" has come into popular use to refer to both sexes who are homosexuals. Dr. Strauss's definition fails to differentiate between homosexual orientation (i.
e. same sex feelings of attraction) and homosexual behavior (i. e. sexual activity with a member of the same gender). Many people have been taught during childhood that homosexual behavior is condemned both by God and by their religion as unnatural and morally degenerate. If they discover later in life that they are lesbian, gay, or bisexual they often go through a spiritual crisis.
Too many realize that their sexual orientation is unchangeable, and that they cannot go through life as someone that they have been taught to hate; they commit suicide. (About 30 % of teen suicides are due to this cause; one of the costs of homophobia). Survivors experience a conflict between what they are and what they believe. They sometimes abandon their religion. Some become enthusiastically anti-religious.
When discrimination against a minority group is condoned by a religion, government or society, then the most extreme forms of hatred are released. We have seen this in its most extreme form of genocide, rape and "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia, directed against Muslims and others. We see hatred in our own public schools, directed against gay and lesbian students. School administrations which ignore the problem are, in effect, declaring open season on sexual minorities. The word "homophobia" originally meant "fear of homosexuals or of homosexuality. " But the English language is in a continuous state of flux.
Words develop different meanings as people develop a new consensus on their definition. This is why older translations of the Bible (e. g. the King James Bible of 1611 CE) are difficult for many people to read. Homophobia is an attitude; homophobe is a person who exhibits homophobia; homophobic is an adjective.
But the word "homophobia" is hopelessly inadequate to cover the full range of people's negative beliefs about individuals of minority sexual orientations. For example, some people: actively work towards defining homosexuals as a minority group which should be deprived of those fundamental human rights which are enjoyed by heterosexuals e. g. the right to marry, or have their jobs protected in the workplace, or be free of discrimination in accommodation, attempt to love the homosexual even while condemning homosexual activity as a sin that they feel is hated by God, hate all persons with a homosexual orientation, even though they remain celibate, feel that persons with a homosexual orientation are sub-human and can be physically attacked with impunity, have an irrational fear of gays and lesbians. Unfortunately, there is only one word, "homophobia" in general use. And it is rapidly becoming a "snarl" word like racism or sexism.
Many conservative Christians see themselves in category 2 above, feel that their beliefs and practices are Biblically based, and deeply resent being called homophobes for simply carrying out what they believe are God's wishes. Homosexuality can cause a lot of grief in ones life. It can cause the individual to be centered out and discriminated against. So why is it that one would ever chose this kind of lifestyle?
To gays themselves, this is not a choice or a disorder as some believe. Until 1974, it was listed as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association. To gay people, it is not a disorder, but an identity. One that is felt as far back as can be remembered.
To them, it pervades every moment of their perception and every aspect of their character. A team at the National Cancer Institutes Laboratory of Biochemistry researched the chromosomes that determine gender, known as X and Y. Men get the X chromosome from their mother and the Y from their father. Women get two X chromosomes, one from each parent. Because the family tree suggested that the homosexuality was inherited from the mothers, the scientists focused in on the X chromosome. A separate study was done on the DNA from 40 pairs of homosexual brothers. 33 pairs shared five different patches of genetic material grouped around a particular area on the X chromosome.
This was found unusual because the sequence of genes vary greatly from one brother to another and the genes on a males X chromosome are a highly variable combination of the genes on the mothers two Xs. So this was found to be a very unlikely coincidence. Homosexuality was the only trait that all 33 pairs shared. A new question was brought up by Dean Hamers team. If homosexuality is a trait, why doesnt it gradually disappear as gays and lesbians are less likely to have children? The answer suggested was that the genes for male homosexuality can be carried and passed to children by heterosexual women, and those genes do not cause the women to be homosexual.
Dr. Richard Pillars was the co-author of some twin studies. These studies showed that twins of gay men have a 50 % chance of being gay themselves. This new genetic evidence is most likely to affect many private relationships. Parents may be more willing and comfortable about letting their children have homosexual teachers, leaders and role models. They may be more willing to accept that is not something that can be helped, but it is in the genetic makeover rather.
Parents who produce offspring that do in fact turn out to be gay may stop blaming themselves for faulty upbringing. Some legal scholars believe that if gay people can establish a genetic basis for sexual preference, like gender or skin color, they may persuade judges that discrimination is unconstitutional. Gay leaders welcomed the study but felt that its existence would imply that homosexuality is wrong and defective. Gay people themselves are worried that precise identification of a"gayness gene" may prompt scientists to alter the genetic code of gay adults or to test during pregnancy and abort potentially gay fetuses. Whether being gay is a choice or determined by genetics, we may never know. But to educate some even slightly may help open the minds of those less willing to learn.
To do that would be an accomplishment in itself. Homosexuality a term created by 19 th cent. theorists to describe a sexual and emotional interest in members of one's own sex. Today a person is often said to have a homosexual or a heterosexual orientation, a description intended to defuse some of the long-standing sentiment among many Westerners that homosexuality is immoral or pathological. Homosexual practices are not afforded any special moral or psychological significance in many other cultures. A survey of 190 societies around the world (1951) reported that homosexual practices were considered acceptable behavior in approximately 70 % of them.
The description of homosexuality as an orientation also suggests, as some contemporary theorists have argued, that the boundaries between "homosexual and "heterosexual are not necessarily rigid. Some studies have indicated that most individuals have some erotic interest in both sexes, whether overt or not. The open expression of interest in both sexes is known as bisexuality. Transsexuals are distinguished from homosexuals by the feeling that they are really members of the opposite sex. Male and female homosexuals are now commonly known as gays and lesbians, respectively. Many people are 100 % gay or lesbian, and are drawn sexually and emotionally only to partners of the same sex.
Others are completely heterosexual, bonding in sexual and intimate relationships only with people of another sex. But what about everybody else? A significant percentage of people do not fit neatly into either of these categories, because they experience sexual and emotional attractions and feelings for people of different genders at some point during their lives. For lack of a better term, they are called bisexuals, although many people prefer to call themselves "pan sexual, "non-preferential, "sexually fluid, "am bisexual, " or "omni-sexual. " The Kinsey scale of zero to six was developed by sex researchers to describe sexual orientation as a continuum. Heterosexual people are at zero on the scale, gay and Lesbian people are at six at the other end of the scale, and everyone in between, from one to five, is bisexual. People who fall at one or two on the scale have primarily heterosexual sexual and affectional relationships and desires, but have some attraction and experiences with same -sex partners as well.
People at three on the scale are approximately equally attracted to both men and women. People at four and five on the Kinsey scale choose primarily same-sex partners, but are not completely gay or lesbian and have some heterosexual tendencies and relationships as well. Works Cited 1. Bay Area Bisexual Network (BABN) (415) - 703 - 7977 Information, social groups and events, political action, sponsors "Fencesitter's Lounge" dance parties for bisexuals, publishes "Anything That Moves, " the magazine for the card-carrying bisexual. 2. web 3. World Book Encyclopedia 4.
Compton's encyclopedia
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