Would you be flattered if a gay person said they fancied you?

[Pyrrho]

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.)