Obama's church buddies on his new gay marriage stance

[Annik]

Actually, I see no indication that Annik is using anything more than the common dictionary definition of "sexual feelings toward a person of the same sex." She may not be, but reading what she wrote using that definition offers absolutely no contradictions. Anything else you add to that definition such as scientific context is baggage you brought along with you.

Edit: Could you also post the scientific definition of homosexuality you're using? It's obviously not common usage (as you've explicitly stated), and it's not found in dictionaries, so I'm interested in knowing what you in particular mean when you say "homosexuality." I understand that you'll be speaking for yourself, though, and not necessarily a single other person.

I think you're are combining having homosexual feelings and acting on them.

I thought I'd made it clear with this post...

Regardless, your dictionary definition has two definitions. This doesn't mean the term is to be used to lump both things together, but that the same word has multiple definitions. I'll use on of the definitions you linked to.

Definition of HOMOSEXUALITY
1
: the quality or state of being homosexual
2
: erotic activity with another of the same sex

I want you to be aware that the definitions are separate. This is because you can use the word in both situations, but that doesn't mean the word is a blanket statement for both definitions at the same time. This should be especially true when actually debating the nature of homosexuality. In complex situations like this, things need to be broken down. When deciding if homosexuality is a choice, we need to both decide if being homosexual (as in definition 1) and homoerotic activities (such as definition 2) are choices.

So separating them is paramount to getting to the meat of the situation.

And for the scientific definition... I do have the APA's insights into sexuality, which is applicable to homo-, hetero-, and bi- sexuals.

Sexuality has three stages: Desire is an interest in being sexual. Excitement is the state of arousal that sexual stimulation causes. And orgasm is sexual pleasure's peaking.

Here was can see sexuality split into 3 sections. Orgasm is not as pertinent to our conversation, however. Thought and action are clearly separate here. (This was pulled from an article about sexual disorders, found here: http://www.apa.org/topics/sexuality/index.aspx, which was adapted from the Encyclopedia of Psychology)

It should also be noted that the APA prefers the term "sexual orientation" over words like "homosexuality" when discussing anything in depth. This is likely because the APA separates orientation from action.

Here is the APA's explanation of sexual orientation:

Sexual orientation refers to an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to men, women, or both sexes. Sexual orientation also refers to a person’s sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions. Research over several decades has demonstrated that sexual orientation ranges along a continuum, from exclusive attraction to the other sex to exclusive attraction to the same sex. However, sexual orientation is usually discussed in terms of three categories: heterosexual (having emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to members of the other sex), gay/lesbian (having emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to members of one’s own sex), and bisexual (having emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to both men and women). This range of behaviors and attractions has been described in various cultures and nations throughout the world. Many cultures use identity labels to describe people who express these attractions. In the United States the most frequent labels are lesbians (women attracted to women), gay men (men attracted to men), and bisexual people (men or women attracted to both sexes). However, some people may use different labels or none at all.

I also think that there is no "scientific" definition of the word homosexuality. In studies, people are usually testing about the orientation side of it, thus a blanket statement is not appropriate.

And, as a side note, there's no need to be a dick to anyone.

EDIT: Something just occurred to me that could cause some confusion when surf the APA's site. When they use the term "homosexuality", they are usually referring to it as a sexual orientation.