While I agree that there isn't a gay gene. I wonder what causes people to be sexually attracted to the same sex? My brother in law tells me that he's never had any feelings of sexual attraction to women but has to men since he was in middle school. I'm sure more psychological study of this phenomena will reveal more as time goes on.
Agreed. There clearly isn't a gay gene -- if there were, evolution would have weeded it out -- but to call homosexuality a choice is to miss the point as well. It's certainly a pervision, and I believe it's wrong. But that doesn't mean someone woke up one day and decided to be attracted to men. Something happened in their lives to cause them to be confused about their sexual identity. We won't make any headway by telling gays simply to choose differently; we have to adjust the cultural circumstances that make such confusion commonplace.
Except that it's been removed as a class of "mental illness" so it is no longer being studied except on a genetic level.
We were all born with the ability to think and choose, my parents and adult support groups always furnished me with enough information to make sound judgments about dangerous behaviors.. The gay lifestyle is generally far more dangerous than parachuting..
Parents never let your child ponder on this subject without your sound warning against homosexuality..
More psychological study won't help.The Psychologists have already decided that they don't want to hurt the feelings of gay people by labeling them as anything worse than a 'variation on normal'. I believe that men are born gay but I believe that it is a personality disorder. I also think that some men have a woman induced trauma (bad break-up or divorce, etc.)and decide that another man might not hurt them as easily. Pure speculation. I'm not in the field of Psychology.
>...he's never had any feelings of sexual attraction to women but has to men since he was in middle school<
Middle school tells me he "made his discovery" after the mid '60's. The feminist movement was in full bloom then, thus perhaps many young men simultaneously became "femalefobic." Note the girls these days are extremely aggressive, and that could turn a young fella off. :o)
My understanding is that there is a normal attraction to the same sex at some point in the tween years (or it might be earlier). I heard that this was a normal progression of development and that most people pass through it. And I'm not even sure it is a real sex thing. Perhaps someone more educated in the area can explain further. Anyway, I'm thinking some people may never pass through it and with today's agenda are actually told at that age that since they have those feelings they must be gay. I think that is why they want to get to the kids at such a young age.
I also think that in the past there were effeminate boys but it wasn't automatically associated with being a homosexual. Now an effeminate boy doesn't have a chance as he is labeled quickly.
"My brother in law tells me that he's never had any feelings of sexual attraction to women but has to men since he was in middle school. I'm sure more psychological study of this phenomena will reveal more as time goes on."
If you get really close to him as time goes on, maybe some day he'll tell you who molested him.
If you ask him too soon, he'll probably swear up and down that he wasn't molested.
Same-sex attraction disorder is a maladaptive response to a molestation or seduction in the pre-adult years.
indefinite periods of prison incarceration with zero chance of parole? (part of that mythical 5% don't you know.....)
Middle school is the time when many boys are still feeling like "girls are yucky" and are alarmed over their feelings towards girls, especially if they have reason to feel conflicted, such as difficulty with either parent or with a troublesome quality of the parents' marriage or parenting. Some boys get "stuck" there if another boy shows too much interest or if a seduction by an older person occurs.
What causes some men to be sexually attracted to large breasts? What causes some men to be sexually attracted to overweight women? To one derrierre vs. another? To very skinny women? Attractions are funny things.
I know my own vision of sexual beauty has become significantly older as I have aged, so they are never truly static things.
Shalom.