A thought on Homosexuality

[vorlon13]

I am a full supporter of LGBT rights and i will defend them to the death if need be .But one trend we need to put to rest is the " born that way idea" i get it it's a good way to push for gay rights .But it's simplistic and ignores the science that sexuality is fluid. I know this will leave an opening for Right wing loons to say the Homosexuality is a "choice " or can be "cured " this can safely be dismissed as changeable does not imply a choice or the ability to alter it at will .

I dunno.

In my case as a third grader I noticed the junior high boys smelled real good after PE. Not sure how one would instill that response/capability in a child any other way than genetically.

[brewer]

Although I've looked at causes (genetic, environment, choice, all of them together in a mash up), I really don't care how the person ends up there or even if they flip flop. It's the treatment/acceptance demonstrated that matters.

[drfuzzy]

I know a lot of gay/lesbian people who have some attraction to the opposite sex.  Kinsey placed attraction on a scale from 0 - 6 - 0 = absolutely straight, 6 = absolutely gay.  I happen to be a 6.  There was even a guy once who I loved, who made me wish for and search for any hint of physical attraction to him. There was none.  I desperately wanted more "fluidity".  It doesn't exist in this lesbian.  I'm quite sincere when I tell you that I would happily commit suicide to avoid experiencing sexual intercourse with a male.

I'm not certain about the "born this way" bit either.  I think that nature/nurture plays an enormous role and we are clearly "programmed" by our environment and interactions.  But then, . . . my Mother wrote my first sentence in my baby book as "I love Judy".  (My teen-aged neighbor/babysitter.)  Ha.  So yeah, Tiz, I might have been "born this way".  Maybe.

[WinterHold]

I believe that the human mind can be programmed to be anything; the mind is not static: we know that it changes how it behaves and how neurons inside always making new connections/pathways or strengthening older connections.


I grew up in an environment that lacked women -almost totally-, so my brain literally adapted to men who looked like girls and were my age at that time. It is only when I began to interact with women more -even if through the internet- is when I began to like females more.

I think the society as a whole plays a very big role. If the culture oppresses men by giving women rights they don't justly deserve, or isolates either of the two genders, or considering "sex" to be a normal act outside the limits of marriage, the normal and natural connection between men and women will be broken; and there is how a gay person is born.

Medically, it's a state of mind. All evidence points to that.

[CapnAwesome]

It's obviously a complicated mix of things that make someone homosexual and all study, including twin studies suggest that. Just indentifying as homosexual can mean a wide variety of things. So whenever anybody tries to boil it down to a simplitic catch all, either way, doesn't make any sense.

I don't think it matters anyway. Even if being gay we're 100% a choice, it's still not a good reason to deny someone their rights. There is nothing morally wrong with homosexuality anyway, so whether or not it's a choice doesn't matter to me at all.

[chimp3]

I don't care if gayness is a choice, fluid, or biological orientation. It's fine with me and prudes need keep their iron aged morality out of the voting booth and other peoples business.

[WinterHold]

2 years back, just suggesting that it's a choice meant "capital punishment" by the public opinion, though this; what Freud said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Fr...osexuality

"Those cases are of particular interest in which the libido changes over to an inverted sexual object after a distressing experience with a normal one."[3]

Freud appears to have been undecided whether or not homosexuality was pathological, expressing different views on this issue at different times and places in his work. Freud frequently called homosexuality an "inversion", something which in his view was distinct from the necessarily pathological perversions, and suggested that several distinct kinds might exist, cautioning that his conclusions about it were based on a small and not necessarily representative sample of patients.[4][5]

[Amarok]

Nobody follows Freud anymore his idea's have been superseded and nobody was going to kill you for suggesting it's a choice . They will laugh at you but kill nope .

[brewer]

Nobody follows Freud anymore his idea's have been superseded and nobody was going to kill you for suggesting it's a choice . They will laugh at you but kill nope .

I still have Freudian lips. 

Slips, I meant slips.

[vulcanlogician]

Yeah, sexuality is pretty fluid, but not evenly so for everyone.  Some are way over on the hetero side while others way over on the other end.  I think "born that way" is more true for some than others.

IDK, Whatevs. When I find that some guy who is "way over on the hetero side" I wonder if the fluidity is not boiling furiously just underneath the lid.

Same goes for the other end of the spectrum. I've had gay friends who I wondered "how the fuck can you be that gay." I think some gay people omit any underlying fluidity from their public sexual persona in much the same way hetero "tough guys" do. Not that either one isn't firmly hetero or firmly gay-- they probably are. It's just that I view a person "too far" in one direction as suspiciously unrealistic.