Terminology
Homosexuality is sometimes also defined in terms of an attraction, preference, orientation, or identity. The term "orientation" is particularly favored by those who are promoting public acceptance of homosexuality.[2]
Genetics and Claims of the immutability of homosexuality
For more information please see: Homosexuality and Genetics
A common argument is that an inclination to homosexuality is inborn and immutable. It is widely believed that the public will become more accepting of homosexuality if they are convinced that it is inborn and immutable. For example, neuroscientist and homosexual Simon Levay stated: "...people who think that gays and lesbians are born that way are also more likely to support gay rights."[3]
Research into the issue of the origins of homosexuality suggests that adoptive brothers are more likely to both be homosexuals than the biological brothers, who share half their genes which suggests that homosexuality is not genetically caused. [4][5] This data prompted the journal Science to report "this . . . suggests that there is no genetic component, but rather an environmental component shared in families".[6][7] However, in regards topsychosocial and biological theories in regards to the origin of homosexuality, Columbia University psychiatryprofessors Drs. William Byrne and Bruce Parsons stated in 1994: "There is no evidence that at present to substantiate a biological theory. [T]he appeal of current biological explanations for sexual orientation may derive more from dissatisfaction with the present status of psychosocial explanations than from a substantiating body of experimental data".[8]
Dr. Tahir I. Jaz, M.D., Winnipeg, Canada states: "The increasing claims of being "born that way" parallels the rising political activism of homosexual organizations, who politicize the issue of homosexual origins. In the 1970s, approximately ten percent of homosexuals claimed to be "born homosexual" according to a large scale survey....However, in a survey in the 1980s, with the homosexual rights movement increasingly becoming active, thirty-five percent claimed to be born that way.[9]
Genetics, Evolutionary Paradigm, and Creation Science
For more information please see: Genetics, Homosexuality, Evolutionary Paradigm, and Creation Science
In 1993, Professor Miron Baron, M.D., the renowned medical researcher and Professor at Columbia University, wrote in BMJ (British Medical Journal) that there is a conflict relative to the theory of evolution and the notion of genetic determinism concerning homosexuality. Dr. Baron wrote "...from an evolutionary perspective, genetically determined homosexuality would have become extinct long ago because of reduced reproduction."[10] In the United States, liberals are more likely to believe in the theory of evolution.[11] Also, in the United States, twice as many liberals as conservatives (46% versus 22%) believe people are born homosexual and liberals generally have more favorable opinions about homosexuality.[12] Given Dr. Miron Baron's commentary about homosexuality, many American liberals are inconsistent on the issues of evolution and homosexuality.
An individual's beliefs regarding creation science/creationism and the theory of evolution appear to influence their views on homosexuality. Creationist scientists and creationist assert that the theory of evolution cannot account for the origin of gender and sexual reproduction.[13][14]Creation Ministries International states: "Homosexual acts go against God’s original design of a man and a woman becoming one flesh — seeGenesis 1 and 2, endorsed by Jesus Himself in Matthew 19:3–6."[15] In addition, the vast majority of creation scientists reject the notion ofgenetic determinism concerning the origin of homosexuality.[16]
Since World War II a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the evolutionary position which employs methodological naturalismhave been atheists.[17] The Barna Group found regarding atheism and morality that those who hold to the worldviews of atheism or agnosticismin America were more likely, than theists in America, to look upon the following behaviors as morally acceptable: illegal drug use; excessive drinking; sexual relationships outside of marriage; abortion; cohabitating with someone of opposite sex outside of marriage; obscene language; gambling; pornography and obscene sexual behavior; and engaging in homosexuality/bisexuality.[18]
Religious Upbringing and Culture Can Strongly Affect Rates of Homosexuality
For more information please see: Religious Upbringing and Culture Affects Rates of Homosexuality
Dr. Neil Whitehead is a research scientist and biochemist from New Zealand and is his wife Briar Whitehead is a writer.[19] Dr. Whitehead coauthored a book with with his wife entitled My Genes Made Me Do it - a scientific look at sexual orientation which argues that there is nogenetic determinism in regards to homosexuality (homosexuals are "not born that way") and that there is abundant documentation that individuals are able to leave homosexuality and become heterosexuals.[20]
Dr. Whitehead and Briar Whitehead state in their aforementioned book the following: regarding various cultures:
| “ | If homosexuality were significantly influenced by genes, it would appear in every culture, but in twenty-nine of seventy-nine cultures surveyed by Ford and Beach in 1952, homosexuality was rare or absent. It was very rare in the Siriono, even though there were no prohibitions on homosexual relationships in that culture. The researcher observed only one man displaying slight homosexual traits but apparently not sexually involved with another man. Homosexuality appears to be rare among Orthodox Jews[Orthodox Judaism forbids homosexuality], so much so that learned rabbis, the interpreters of Jewish law, usually allowed men to sleep in the same bed, because likelihood of sexual contact was considered negligible. Kinsey also found very low homosexual incidence among Orthodox Jews... This evidence comes from missionaries who commonly spend 25 years of their lives living in one culture, far more than almost any anthropologist....Overall they can be considered as reliable witnesses. For example, in contrast to groups like the Sambia in the New Guinea highlands, where homosexuality was compulsory, only about 2-3 percent of Western Dani (also in the New Guinea highlands) practiced it. However, in another group of Dani who were genetically related, homosexuality was totally unknown. Missionaries report that when they were translating the Bible into Dani for this group, their tribal assistants, who knew their own culture intimately, were nonplused by references to homosexuality in Romans 1; they did not understand the concept. Another missionary, with the same group for 25 years, overheard many jests and sexually ribald exchanges among the men, but never a single mention of homosexuality in all that time. When Dani went to help with missionary work among the Sambia, they were astounded at some of the homosexual practices they saw for the first time. Although it is always difficult for a foreigner to be completely sure whether a rare and stigmatized behavior exists, it is certainly true that if three such different experiences of homosexuality can occur in groups of people so closely related genetically, genetically enforced homosexuality is an impossibility.[21] | ” |
In 1976, Gwen J. Proude and Sarah J. Green published a study in the journal Ethnology which echoed the work of Clellan S. Ford and Frank Ambrose Beach. [22] The journal article by Proude and Green stated that there were societies in which homosexuality was rare or absent. [23] In addition, Proude and Green in the aforementioned journal article had data which showed a positive correlation between cultures which accepted or ignored homosexuality in their cultures and cultures which were more likely to have homosexuality not be uncommon.[24]
In 1993, M. Baron wrote in BMJ (British Medical Journal) the following:
| “ | Some cultures - for example, the Assyrian and Graeco-Roman - were more tolerant of homosexuality. The behavior was practiced openly and was highly prevalent. Sexual patterns are to some extent a product of society's expectations, but it would be difficult to envisage a change in the prevalence of the genetic trait merely in response to changing cultural norms.[25] | ” |
Dennis Prager wrote the following regarding Orthodox Judaism and homosexuality:
| “ | In the Syballine Oracles, written by an Egyptian Jew probably between 163 and 45 B.C., the author compared Jews to the other nations: The Jews "are mindful of holy wedlock, and they do not engage in impious intercourse with male children, as doPhoenicians, Egyptians, and Romans, specious Greece and many nations of others,Persians and Galatians and all Asia." And in our times, sex historian Amo Karlen wrote that according to the sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, "Homosexuality was phenomenally rare among Orthodox Jews."[26] | ” |
Herbert Hendin wrote in the Journal of American Academy of Psychoanalysis the following:
| “ | Anthropologists had observed that relatively uncompetitive primitive cultures such as those that do not distinguish or reward the best hunters in distinction to the other men in the tribe have virtually no homosexuality."[27] | ” |
Individuals Raised in Large Cities Versus Individuals Raised in Suburbs, Towns, and Countrysides
In 1994, the book Sex in America: A definitive survey by Robert T. Michael, John H. Gagnon, Edward O. Laumann, and Gina Kolata stated the following:
| “ | We discovered that people who were raised in large cities were more likely to be homosexual than people who were raised in suburb, towns, or the countryside. This relationship also showed up in the General Social Survey, an independent national sample.[28] | ” |
The aforementioned authors Dr. Whitehead and Briar Whitehead similarly wrote:
| “ | There is a much higher incidence of homosexuality among those who have been raised in large cities, rather than in rural areas, arguing that the environment is much more powerful than genes in the development of homosexuality.[29] | ” |
Sexual Abuse as a Contributing Factor For Homosexuality
In 1999, Dr. Jeffrey Satinover, M.D. wrote the following regarding the position of sexual abuse being a contributing factor for homosexuality:
| “ | Many studies demonstrate a sadly disproportionate extent of sexual abuse in the childhoods of homosexual men, suggesting at the least that both homosexual unhappiness and homosexuality itself derive from common causes...[30] | ” |
In 2001, the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior published a study entitled Comparative data of childhood and adolescence molestation in heterosexual and homosexual persons. The abstract for this article states the following:
| “ | In research with 942 nonclinical adult participants, gay men and lesbian women reported a significantly higher rate of childhood molestation than did heterosexual men and women. Forty-six percent of the homosexual men in contrast to 7% of the heterosexual men reported homosexual molestation. Twenty-two percent of lesbian women in contrast to 1% of heterosexual women reported homosexual molestation. This research is apparently the first survey that has reported substantial homosexual molestation of girls.[31] | ” |
The authors of the above medical journal article entitled Comparative data of childhood and adolescence molestation in heterosexual and homosexual persons also stated that childhood sexual molestation may not be a causal factor for homosexuality and that the abuse molestation may be occurring after the individual is a homosexual and the medical researchers speculated that the victims of molestation may be engaging in behaviors that put them at greater risk for molestation.[32]
In 1998, Dr. William C. Holmes, M.D. and Dr. Gail B. Slap, M.D. reported in the medical journal JAMA the following:
| “ | Adolescent boys, particularly those victimized by males, were up to 7 times more likely to identify themselves as homosexual or bisexual than peers who had not been abused (P<.001). [33] | ” |
Dr. Holmes and Dr. Slap also pointed out that "No longitudinal studies examined the causal relationship between abuse and gender role or sexual orientation, however. Gender role nonconformity and gay or bisexual identity may precede abuse." [35] Dr. Holmes and Dr. Slap also offered a speculative scenario in respect to how a homosexual adolescent exploring his sexuality may put himself at risk but offered no empirical studies in regards to their speculative scenario.[36]
In 1997, the researcher Gundlach studied the issue of childhood sexual molestation in respect to lesbians and according the medical researchers Gundlach found the following:
| “ | Gundlach (1977) surveyed 225 lesbian and 233 heterosexual women, and found that 30% of the heterosexual women and 21% of the lesbians had been raped. Of the 30 women who had been raped before the age of 14, 26 had an adult homosexual orientation while 9 had an adult heterosexual orientation.[37] | ” |
In addition, the abstract for the Gundlach study states the following additional detail:
| “ | Sixteen of the 17 girls, age 4 to 16, molested or seduced (6 for a long time) by a relative or close family friend are lesbians as adults. The subjects' attitudes about the incident were highly determined by parental reactions.[38] | ” |
Failure of Experiments to Show Genetic Determinism For Homosexuality
For more information please see: Failure of Experiments to Show Genetic Determinism For Homosexuality
Dr. Dean Hamer is a researcher often cited to show that there is empirical data supporting the notion of genetic determinism in regards to homosexuality. News organizations like National Public Radio and Newsweek have done news stories regarding his work.[39] In respect to the press trumpeting various findings genetics-of-behavior research uncritically the science journal Science stated the following in 1994:
| “ | Time and time again, scientists have claimed that particular genes or chromosomal regions are associated with behavioral traits, only to withdraw their findings when they were not replicated. "Unfortunately," says Yale's [Dr. Joel] Gelernter, "it's hard to come up with many" findings linking specific genes to complex human behaviors that have been replicated. "...All were announced with great fanfare; all were greeted unskeptically in the popular press; all are now in disrepute."[40] | ” |
Martin A. Silverman, M.D. wrote regarding a famous study of Dr. Dean Hamer:
| “ | On July 16, 1993, it was reported in Science (pp. 291, 321) that geneticist Dean Hamer and his team at the National Cancer Institute had reported on a study involving 40 pairs of brothers both of whom were gay that had led them to conclude that they had discovered a factor on the X chromosome through which gayness was genetically transmitted to them from their mothers. This was hailed as proof that homosexuality in men is biological in origin. Two years later, however, Eliot Marshall reported inScience (June 30, 1995, p.268) George Ebers and George Rice of the University of Western Ontario had unsuccessfully attempted to replicate Hamer's findings and had "found no evidence that gayness is passed from mother to son" genetically. He also reported that the Office of Research Integrity in the Department of Health and Human Services was investigating Hamer's work.[41] | ” |
In May of 2000, the American Psychiatric Association issued a fact sheet stating that "..there are no replicated scientific studies supporting a specific biological etiology for homosexuality."[42]
Volition as a Causal Factor of Homosexuality - Homosexuality as a Choice
In regards to the issue of homosexuality and choice, given the existence of ex-homosexuals and given theexistence of human cultures where homosexuality has apparently not existed, the position that homosexuality is ultimately a choice in individuals or at the very least can be a choice in individuals has strong evidential support. In short, there is a strong argument that one can leave homosexuality. In addition, given that the homosexual population has significantly higher rates of many diseases and the homosexual population also has significantly lower rates of various measures of mental health it can be strongly argued that engaging in homosexual acts is a bad choice for individuals. Another other factor that makes engaging in homosexual acts a bad choice for individuals is the significantly higher rates of domestic violence in homosexual couples. In addition, according to experts homosexual murders are relatively or quite common and often homosexual murders are very brutal. Also, the homosexual population has a greater propensity to engage in illegal drug use.
A 2003 poll done by Ellison Research of Phoenix, Arizona stated that 82% of all American Protestant ministers agreed with the statement “homosexuality is a choice people make".[43]
The Russian Orthodox Church view is that homosexuality is a choice.
The Roman Catholic Church's position is that having homosexual desires can be a choice in individuals but having homosexual desires is not a choice in respect to all individuals.[44][45] However, according to the Vaticanindividuals should not engage in homosexual acts as they are acts of serious depravity.[46]
Dr. Nadia El-Awady reflects the view of many adherents of Islam when he stated the following:
| “ | Much research has been done over the years to discover the scientific origins of homosexuality. Mostly it has been to disprove the fact that homosexuality is a matter of choice.[47] |
No comments:
Post a Comment