A few months ago, I came across an article, just one of many, about the existence of homosexuality solely as a choice, falling headfirst into the maze of immoral sexuality. This classic reflection is from ‘The Family Research Institute’ 2002, Volume 17, no.4. “Homosexuality is about rebelling against society and trying to corrupt it, even when heterosexuality is, for the most part, about having and raising children. (Homosexuality) is also about coloring the world with SEX, regardless of the consequences. Their most prominent attitude is selfishness: getting what’s mine, what I deserve, taking revenge on everyone who’s hurt me, etc.” and later, “With rare exceptions, gay people don’t do these things because they are.” confused as to whether they are male or female. They know they are men, they have just learned to enjoy sex with other men. They are not “sick”, nor are they typically in great psychological distress. Rather they have acquired a bad habit, a bad habit, a socially damaging habit.”
So, consequently, homosexuals are bad and heterosexuals, for the most part, are good. Is this kind of thinking and where it leads us is completely absurd? It’s funny when I hear someone discuss homosexuality as a choice event. It is highly implausible that anyone, especially children, could or would want to make a decision about something they cannot fully understand and a choice that would bring obvious negative social repercussions and often emotional and physical danger. A herd of thinkers remains convinced that homosexuality is learned behavior. Well, for that matter, so is heterosexuality. We all need to learn where, when, and when not to have sex and what is the best way to do it. On the contrary, in cultures that express abhorrence of homosexuality, the minority must learn the techniques of covert behavior, that is, how not to be found out, verbally offended, beaten or killed.
In Thailand, where I now live, within the pulse of Buddhist tolerance, homosexuality, while certainly not accepted, is fully tolerated. Gay or transgender students are not harassed or bullied by their peers.
Some Muslim countries, however, easily behead homosexuals, despite the fact that their culture was, and still is, naturally made up of the same percentage of homosexuals within the population as anywhere else on the planet and has been for millennia. .
Christian countries are not more tolerant. We need only evoke the tragic image of Mathew Shepard, beaten senseless in 1998, his life slowly declining and then ending up in the cold Wyoming snow. Gay bashing is one of the most horrific symptoms of a bigoted culture and we are currently witnessing more and more of this dark hatred within our communities in the United States, especially among the youth.
A small group adhere to the notion of a ‘gay gene’, but most genetic scientists have generally dismissed this idea as having some demonstrable merit. All evidence of genetic evolution indicates that all creatures move relentlessly toward the propagation of life in all its variations, and a gene that leans the other way will eventually be eliminated from the gene pool. Sensitive. Unless, of course, you’re a creationist about whom nothing makes sense. In fact, if the author of the Family Heritage article were willing to take the time to do some research, he or she might find that the straight to gay ratio of pornographic Internet sites is about the same as the straight to straight ratio. . Homosexuals I suspect that the heterosexual to homosexual ratios remain fairly constant. For every 10,000 gay sites there are 100,000 straight porn sites. And we must not exclude everyone in between. Very few of those sites are about procreation.
There is a possibility that the origins of homosexuality arose around the same time as the origins of heterosexuality. The truth is, we just don’t know. But historical records show that same-sex fascination has been around for a long time. Aristotle was of the opinion that homosexuality was a natural way to prevent overpopulation. A real and altruistic possibility: a small part of us ordered to sacrifice the chance to drive our own individual genes to help perpetuate our species. However, this does not always bear the right fruits, because religious/cultural pressures force a continuous cadre of gay men and women to marry and have children. The ones I have met are very good fathers and mothers and generally tend to instill a much-needed and healthy breadth of tolerance in their sons and daughters.
Male homosexuality in ancient times was a very important part of cultural militarism, Sparta and Athens being prime examples. In the fourth century B.C. C., the Greek military commander, Gorgidas, formed an elite army of homosexual lovers, consisting of the “heniochoi”, the older man and the charioteer along with the “parabaitai” or companion of him. (These terms are the same as the ancient Greek “erastes” and “eromenos”.) This small army of 300 male lovers, called “The Sacred Band”, was formidable and undefeated until they marched against Alexander the Great and his father Philip II. . It was Philip’s feared long-speared Macedonian phalanx that fatally defeated the Band; each pair died in battle rather than surrender. Phillip exclaimed, “Death to the man who suspects that these men have done or suffered anything unseemly.”
As a side note, it is interesting to compare the Greek word phallos, (thought to be of Proto-Hellenic origin, expressing endearing diminutive slang for penis, much like our weanie or pee-pee: Greek phi, pe, penis) with a phalanx, Greek phalangos, meaning ‘finger’. I guess even the ancient Greeks had early on developed a gesture to straighten out obvious rudeness.
Even earlier, a thousand years before the heyday of classical Greece, on the island of Crete, deeply rooted homosexual rituals already existed in cultures where it was inseparable from the norms of heterosexuality. As it evolved it took the form of male initiation rites, that is, the cultural process of bringing boys into adulthood. Similar rites continued openly well into the 20th century in Africa, South America, and Asia. And, certainly in a covert way, it existed and still exists in all Christian cultures, particularly those of Catholic belief, if we can use the preponderance of current sexual abuse claims as a yardstick.
Same-sex behavior in non-human species has been observed in approximately four hundred and fifty different species. Canadian biologist and linguist Bruce Bagemihl, whose massive tome ‘Biological Exuberance’ chronicles these events, proposes an interesting theory of sexual behavior in which reproduction is not necessarily the only function of sexuality. Equally important are the release of tensions and the cohesion of the group.
In fact, ‘Biological Exuberance’ was ranked in the Supreme Court case, Lawrence v. Texas, as evidence that homosexuality is a natural fact.
If same-sex desire is not genetic, and if it is not by choice or learned behavior, how come it exists and has existed longer than human memory? Is it encoded and articulated through some kind of genetic predisposition? Surely everything that has been with us long before the myths of Christianity were created must have a reason for existing. I agree more with Bagemihl’s ideas. And I would go further and say that the concept of heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality, as we perceive them in modern terms, is an impoverished diminution of human variation and possibility by Christian dogma. In the speciation landscape, mammals have become quite inventive. Not all males can mount the female, only the dominant few. Yet with few exceptions, the same fire, the chemical furnace of sexuality, powers us all. Nature provides us with deliciously beautiful options.
Whatever merit we can squeeze out of it, the church is and always has been eager to perpetuate ignorance. For example, in 2008, by overturning the Supreme Court decision guaranteeing fundamental rights for all, the people and politicians of California (and elsewhere) voted in favor of Proposition Eight, which defines marriage as valid only between a man and a woman. Supporting such an absolute ban on human decency is an act of unconscionable cowardice. Fortunately, Proposition Eight was struck down this year. Perhaps one day we will fully embrace the term pansexuality, as it more generously refers to a proper and honest discourse about the aggregation of human potential, and the words “heterosexuality,” “bisexuality,” and “homosexuality” will be buried along with other artifacts. of ignorance: fear, hate, racism, intolerance and greed.