homosexuality: disorder or perversion

[Felix (POL)]

Homosexuality as disorder rather than perversion

We’ve got about six hours to go before New Orleans becomes a memory, they say, so I thought I’d get this out there while there’s still time.

A two-week-old Boston Globe article refers to an anonymous pair of identical twin boys, one of whom suffers from a childhood gender nonconformity disorder, to ask pithy questions about sexuality. What childhood gender nonconformity disorder has to do with sexuality is left as an exercise for the reader; the Globe’s Neil Swidey dives into a predictable and dull peroration on homosexuality.

Swidey asserts that gay advocates believe “proving people are born gay would give them wider social acceptance and better protection against discrimination.” Well, maybe, but there’s another side of that coin that Swidey totally ignores. Proving that people are born gay would put the issue of homosexuality right back into the realm of a neurological disorder. Swidey’s only acknowledgment of that point of view comes in the form of a dismissive quote from retired neuroscientist Simon LeVay, an individual obviously no more qualified to speak on societal issues than anybody else. LeVay says that describing homosexuality as a neurological or even genetic disorder “has contributed to the status of gay people in society.” Well, sure. It’s moved them from being perverts to be shunned to being sick people to be pitied.

Look, let’s settle this once and for all, okay? Homosexuality is abnormal. It’s a set of behaviors and expressions that varies from the norm. It’s also a strikingly unusual one. Two percent of American men self-identify as homosexual; by contrast, five percent of Americans suffer from some form of clinical depression. Saying that homosexuality is within the normal variation of human behavior is simply not reasonable.

So the question is, is homosexuality a disorder, something that happens to somebody because of, for lack of a better word, a malfunction somewhere in their body? Or is it a preference? Is homosexuality more like suffering from depression, or is it more like not liking broccoli?

The gay advocacy community doesn’t like either of those answers. They would rather argue that homosexuality is totally normal, just like having blue eyes or being left-handed. Except the incidence of left-handedness in America is about one in eleven, while the incidence of homosexuality is one in fifty. So that argument just isn’t that persuasive.

Decades ago, homosexuality was seen as a perversion that should be shunned. The pendulum shifted and now, more and more, it’s been seen as medical disorder. This is a huge net gain for the gay-advocacy folks. Society now recognizes that gay people are gay not of their own choosing, but because their brain chemistry is different. But for some gay advocates, that’s not enough. They want homosexuality to be recognized as normal, commonplace even. That’s just not supported by the facts. What is supported by the facts is the conclusion that homosexuality is a biological disorder, possibly caused in the womb.

So now the interesting question is this: How long before somebody comes up with a cure? And how will the homosexual advocacy community respond?
Posts that might or might not be

http://theshapeofdays.com/2005/08/29...erversion.html

[Daltanius]

Homosexuality as disorder rather than perversion

We’ve got about six hours to go before New Orleans becomes a memory, they say, so I thought I’d get this out there while there’s still time.

A two-week-old Boston Globe article refers to an anonymous pair of identical twin boys, one of whom suffers from a childhood gender nonconformity disorder, to ask pithy questions about sexuality. What childhood gender nonconformity disorder has to do with sexuality is left as an exercise for the reader; the Globe’s Neil Swidey dives into a predictable and dull peroration on homosexuality.

Swidey asserts that gay advocates believe “proving people are born gay would give them wider social acceptance and better protection against discrimination.” Well, maybe, but there’s another side of that coin that Swidey totally ignores. Proving that people are born gay would put the issue of homosexuality right back into the realm of a neurological disorder. Swidey’s only acknowledgment of that point of view comes in the form of a dismissive quote from retired neuroscientist Simon LeVay, an individual obviously no more qualified to speak on societal issues than anybody else. LeVay says that describing homosexuality as a neurological or even genetic disorder “has contributed to the status of gay people in society.” Well, sure. It’s moved them from being perverts to be shunned to being sick people to be pitied.

Look, let’s settle this once and for all, okay? Homosexuality is abnormal. It’s a set of behaviors and expressions that varies from the norm. It’s also a strikingly unusual one. Two percent of American men self-identify as homosexual; by contrast, five percent of Americans suffer from some form of clinical depression. Saying that homosexuality is within the normal variation of human behavior is simply not reasonable.

So the question is, is homosexuality a disorder, something that happens to somebody because of, for lack of a better word, a malfunction somewhere in their body? Or is it a preference? Is homosexuality more like suffering from depression, or is it more like not liking broccoli?

The gay advocacy community doesn’t like either of those answers. They would rather argue that homosexuality is totally normal, just like having blue eyes or being left-handed. Except the incidence of left-handedness in America is about one in eleven, while the incidence of homosexuality is one in fifty. So that argument just isn’t that persuasive.

Decades ago, homosexuality was seen as a perversion that should be shunned. The pendulum shifted and now, more and more, it’s been seen as medical disorder. This is a huge net gain for the gay-advocacy folks. Society now recognizes that gay people are gay not of their own choosing, but because their brain chemistry is different. But for some gay advocates, that’s not enough. They want homosexuality to be recognized as normal, commonplace even. That’s just not supported by the facts. What is supported by the facts is the conclusion that homosexuality is a biological disorder, possibly caused in the womb.

So now the interesting question is this: How long before somebody comes up with a cure? And how will the homosexual advocacy community respond?
Posts that might or might not be

http://theshapeofdays.com/2005/08/29...erversion.html

.