Peppermint Tea

I posted some comments on The Queen of All Evil's discussion about homosexuality but later decided I had more to say, so I'm going to post them all over here and trackback. My first response:

There's only one problem with the 'homosexuality is natural in animals' argument: just because an animal does it doesn't make it right. For example, the females of several spider species eat the males after copulation; can some people just not 'help' being cannibals? Of course not!


Animals, true, don't have the ability to choose between good and evil and are thus discredited from providing evidence in an argument about the morality of a certain behavior.


And as for that thoroughly discredited theory that a 'gay gene' exists, check out a 1991 study by Michael Bailey and Richard Pillard, where they found several sets of identical twins, one of whom was heterosexual and one homosexual. So it certainly couldn't have been genetic in their case! (In fact, I know one such set of twins.)


Also see "The Innate-Immutable Argument Finds No Basis in Science" and "In Their Own Words: Gay Activists Speak About Science, Morality, and Philosophy".


No one denies that there aren't genetic *factors* to personality traits like homosexuality, but human beings are more than the sum of their genetic factors, aren't they? Homosexuality looks to be more of a 'nurture' than a 'nature' effect.

And I finally found that article! I'd been searching for it everywhere, and it seemed to have disappeared. Here's a quote from Not Afraid to Come Out:

Even generally liberal media outlets have noticed the unhealthy mindset commonly found among homosexuals. “Hard as it may be to understand, some gay men have unsafe sex because they want to get HIV — or at least skate close to the edge,” said a Newsweek article last year. “Danger can be erotic, even the threat of contracting a deadly disease.” The article quotes a University of Florida student saying, “If someone has AIDS or HIV, that kind of lionizes them. It’s heroic, like fighting the battle. ... When you get with someone who has HIV, it’s like being with someone greater than you are.”

The problem goes beyond promiscuity. Gays (male and female) are much more inclined to smoke, drink and use illegal drugs than the rest of society. A comprehensive study in the American Journal of Public Health (no. 84: 1994) found that 50 percent of gay males and 41 percent of lesbians have used hallucinogens such as LSD; and 79 percent of gay men and 82 percent of lesbians have used marijuana.

Gay spokesmen typically blame risky behavior on society’s intolerance, which they claim has driven them to flout the rules. Ironically, such conduct tends to be most intense in places where homosexuality faces the least disapproval — large cities (New York, San Francisco) and college campuses with concentrated gay communities. “Promiscuity, drug abuse, suicide, HIV — all of them are worst where homosexuality is most accepted,” says John Paulk, a leader in the ex-gay group Exodus International.

The problem likely rests with homosexuality itself, not with society, with the psychological and emotional scars that shape gender identity.

Did you catch that? The places where society doesn't pressure homosexual people, and allows them to be whatever they want to be, they increasingly want to be alcoholics, drug users, and promiscuous.

Numerous studies have found that the average male homosexual is fantastically promiscuous. One of the most extensive studies, by researchers A.P. Bell and M.S. Weinberg, found that over the course of a lifetime:

•73 percent of gay men had over 100 partners,
•58 percent had over 250 partners,
•41 percent had over 500 partners and
•26 percent had over 1,000 partners.

So, in conclusion, homosexuality is not genetic. So nature's been discounted; that leaves nurture and choice. I can't find the exact website, but I recall reading another study demonstrating that by far most homosexuals have *terrible* relationships with their parents, particularly the one of the opposite sex. So perhaps nurture is the real cause, and homosexuality is a mental illness brought on by traumatic childhood experiences. Or maybe free will is the final determination. Maybe homosexuals choose to do something they have been commanded not to for the same reason Adam and Eve chose to eat the apple off that tree.

UPDATE: Why is it I always hear the argument, "But why don't you want people to love each other? Don't we need more love in this world?" Why do you have to be having sex with a person to love them? After all, I love my mother but I don't... Ick, bad mental image. I feel dirty now. ::wants to wash her brain with soap:: Sex and love have nothing but the most casual of connections. Love is about self-sacrifice, selflessness, humility, and patience, not HOT HOT XXX SEX as those porn spammers would have you believe.

UPDATE: Mrs. du Toit brings up another possibility, that the chemicals we are exposed to in the womb can shape our development, and may predispose the child to homosexuality.

Which brings up another question to consider. After all, a person may be predisposed to alcohol, and yet never become an alcoholic. Even someone with the alcoholic gene can make a concious choice not to drink. And it makes sense that someone could learn to regulate their sexual impulses; we do it everyday when we notice an attractive person and choose not to tear off our clothes and jump them in the middle of the street. :P But sexual impulses are, on the whole, the most insidious drives and the most difficult to resist.

I think her theory about reconditioning the brain to release the right chemicals makes a lot of sense. I have met so-called 'cured' homosexuals and they do, indeed, seem to have taught themselves to be straight through therapy. Does this mean that parents of homosexual children should force them into counseling? No, that would be incredibly counter-productive; therapy usually only works if the person *wants* to be cured.
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