the hammer of homosexuality

[Pyrrho]

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Agreed. Even if being gay (or bisexual, which is too much for simpletons to be able to jam into their black and white thinking) was a choice, who the fuck cares? Worry about your own genitals and keep your nose out of other people's, except by invitation.

"Being gay offends God" = "Being gay offends me"

Can't stop talking about the virtues of male/male anal sex = Can't stop thinking about other men's arse holes

Well, if they kept their noses out of other peoples' business, what would be the point of Christianity? I mean, they claim it's a "personal relationship with God" and all that, but it's pretty clear to the rest of us that there's a lot  more involved, most of it having to do with sticking noses where they're not welcome and pressuring people psychologically.

My question isn't whether it's biological or not (it's pretty clear to me that it is), it's why they've chosen to focus on this one "sin" so heavily, out of the thousands of options, when 

1) It has virtually no presence in the Bible... a couple of obscure references in the Pentateuch, a clear reference and a couple of vague references in the New Testament, and not much else, and


2) There are many, many other sins spoken of in much clearer terms, which are ignored almost entirely, such as fortune telling, for instance. Divorce is spoken against by Jesus in the clearest possible terms, and forbidden in very strong language, yet we hear nothing about it except an occasional sermon in the actual church, and nothing beyond its doors where I'm forced to give a shit about it.

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I've never managed to figure out how homosexuality became their pet bigotry. I know the history of Roman-style prejudice and conceptualization of the gay thing (e.g. expected/perceived femininity of gay men, and the idea that being the "bottom" or the one doing the sucking is somehow worse than the one on "top"), but I can't figure out how it got to be where it is, as a central-focus issue for this generation's primary bigotry.

I think that it is due to sexism.  That being "like a woman" is considered by many to be a bad thing.  Even today, some of the biggest insults are calling a man a "woman" or a "pussy" (a female body part).  If a man is on the receiving end, like a woman, then that is perceived as a bad thing, because women are perceived as inferior.  It is all related to sexism and the hatred of women.

As for it being a big deal, there have been psychological studies that have indicated that the most homophobic people are themselves generally secretly homosexual.  Generally speaking, one cares most about things that pertain to oneself, not about things that are completely irrelevant to oneself.  Here is a link to a study that involved measuring erections of men who were homophobic and were shown gay porn, compared with men who were not homophobic:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8772014

Basically, when you encounter some guy who goes on and on about gays (as opposed to a passing comment), you can be pretty sure he is attracted to men.  He would not be so excited about the subject if it were irrelevant to him.


But that is only part of the equation.  I have also written about this general subject before:

I can't help but think that the root of the problem is religious indoctrination.  Places where the major religion has a problem with homosexuality, the people react badly to it.  But in places where the religions do not have a problem with it (like ancient Greece), people don't seem to have a problem with it.  I don't know any exceptions to this.

Now, before someone tells me about how they gave up their religion or whatever, just because one gives up one's religion, that does not mean that one has extracted all of the beliefs and attitudes that they had because of their religion.  Also, a dominant religion impacts the society as a whole, so one may be influenced by a religion without ever having been a member.  I seem to recall reading somewhere that Jews who live in countries with lots of Christians are much more likely to make a bid deal out of Hanukkah than those who live in countries without a large Christian population.  The explanation I was told was that it was a reaction to Christmas, to have a celebration at about the same time as the society as a whole.  Otherwise, Hanukkah is not one of the more important Jewish holidays.

As for homophobic people being secretly gay, that makes a lot of sense because otherwise, why care about it?  It is what impacts you that you are most likely to care deeply about.  Also, I remember reading about a study in which men were asked about their attitudes toward homosexuality, and, generally speaking, the ones who were most homophobic seemed to be gay.  Their level of gayness was determined by putting sensors on their penises and showing them gay porn.  Homophobes tend to get erections from gay porn, whereas straight guys who are not homophobes don't.

I don't know. Part of me thinks it could be to do with religious indoctrination but there is a problem with that: homosexuality is just one sin among many in the bible and in theory all sins are equal in god's eyes. So the fact that they tend to single that particular one out suggests to me that homophobia comes first and the Bible just acts as a means to 'rationalise' it. Basically it seems a chicken and egg situation but one which I think had to have some sort of catalyst outside of religion in order to take that one sin and magnify it so much.

That study you talk about is fascinating. Can't wait to tell some people  

Sexual orientation is independent of the dominant religion, but one's attitude toward sexual orientation is not.  In the case of sex, it is not something easy to ignore, which makes it very unlike mixed fabrics (though, frankly, a cotton/polyester blend shirt is an abomination).  So although sexual preference and the blending of fabrics may be "equal" in some book, they are not equal in terms of their importance to people's lives.  (Though, again, everyone should reject cotton/polyester blend shirts and pick pure cotton like all decent folk.  Your sexuality is trivial compared to this, which is what really matters.  If we are going to stone people, it should first be those who make cotton/polyester shirts, not people who are gay, who are not making the world a worse place.)