Some Gays Can Go Straight, Study Says

[emjay]

From all the convos we've ever had on here, one thing I'm pretty sure is that homophobic you are not... far from it; you seem very liberal minded to me, and hell, seem to have more gay friends than I do So whatever your leanings toward Christianity/theology, there's nothing you've ever said to me that suggests you have the sort of anti-gay agenda that usually goes hand in hand with it.

Years ago when I was working at the Metropolitan Museum's medieval branch, up at the northern end of Manhattan, we actually realized that I was the only straight white man employed in the building. I'll bet the art and design world was about half gay people in those days. And probably now it has the whole rainbow -- trans and gender fluid and everything else -- far more in evidence than in most arenas. If my white small town childhood gave me any homophobia it didn't survive contact with so many talented individuals. 

(At the last gallery I worked in, the guy I worked most closely with came to work in tears one day, because his boyfriend had left him. But his boyfriend had left him for Michael Stipe, the singer in the band REM, so he said, "I'd leave me for him, too!")

LOL

The theological issues with being gay seem less clear to me than they do to a lot of American Christians, I guess. Until the 19th century, nobody condemned homosexuality but they did condemn sodomy. The idea of orientation or intrinsic desire was moot -- morality only depended on what one did, and straight people have as many opportunities to enjoy non-approved sex as anybody else. (Without going into detail, so do I.)

Don't take this as angry at you, or shooting the messenger, cos it's not, but tell that to the Ugandans... what they're doing is the real abomination. Leaving gay people in that country no sanctuary whatsoever, even if they refrain from sexual activity. Ie as I understand it, under their proposed laws there will be jail time for even identifying as gay, let alone acting on it, so completely the antithesis of 'hate the sin, love the sinner'.
 

I suspect that anti-gay feeling is more something cultural that soaks into Christianity, the way capitalism does in American Christianity. It depends on the time and place, whether they get worked up about it or not. In the Renaissance the Vatican employed an artist known to everyone as Sodoma, because of his well-known preferences, and nobody worried about it. (And Leonardo's and Michelangelo's tastes were just as well-known.) Christianity is so malleable that I don't see homophobia as something intrinsic to it.

I don't think it's intrinsic to it but rather that it amplifies and/or is used to rationalise people's existing prejudices, if they have them. 

In fact the way some ages seem to condemn homosexuality more than others is related to the thread topic, I think. The issue to me is: how malleable is human nature? Do all humans have certain characteristics in common, or does it just seem that way due to the prejudices of our age? So for example capitalists say that we are by nature greedy, and capitalism is good because it supposedly harnesses that for the greater good. But I think we may be more capable of variety than is generally known. Non-greedy societies might be possible. And since sexuality is apparently a significant part of human nature, the possibilities of variety in that aspect of our selves is an important topic -- and one that for whatever reason is particularly in the news today.

Who knows exactly what causes homophobia? But I agree there could well be a cultural aspect to it, and thankfully it does seem to be amenable to change as a result of education and/or awareness. For instance even me; I used to be quite prejudiced against drag queens, because I hadn't had much exposure to them, and the exposure I had had to them had been unpleasant (ie when I went to gay clubs there was one that was really handsy with me, and just made me feel really uncomfortable to be around... as well as being somewhat creepy to me), but then, granted out of morbid curiosity, at first at least, I started watching RuPaul's Drag Race, which was hailed as being largely about trying to raise awareness, and that it did. RuPaul him/herself being a great ambassador and inspirational figure to me. Now I've seen thirteen seasons of it and they feel like family to me.