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To: IronJack
You seem to have conflated deviant with incorrect and immoral which is something that psychologists and psychiatrists are very careful to not do. They are distinct terms for a reason and deviant is used as a morally neutral pointer. Chances are you are statistically deviant in many ways that common usage usually wouldn't even consider. Heterosexuality being a baseline norm is just not the same thing as it being baseline proper, correct, healthy, etc from the viewpoint of the world of psychology.

Sorry if it seems nitpicky and pedantic. I was raised by a psychologist and a psychiatrist and picked up some of their pet peeves.
52 posted on 07/07/2009 6:28:30 PM PDT by TomOnTheRun
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To: TomOnTheRun

The word I used to describe heterosexually oriented people was “normal”. I did not attach any moral riders to that term. The inverse of “normal” is “abnormal” or “deviant”. Once again, denotative, not judgmental.

But in fact, certain behaviors that are statistically deviant may also be considered wrong. People are free to exercise their moral as well as their mathmatical judgment. There is ample precedent in western — indeed, almost ALL — culture for the social rejection of homosexuality. Few human behaviors are so universally shunned, or tolerated only under aberrant circumstances as homosexuality. Even divorced from any religious context, it is arguable that homosexuality is “wrong”, at least for any workable social purpose. Maybe it’s wrong because it’s deviant, or maybe it’s deviant because it’s wrong. But both of those dimensions are present.

And while psychiatrists may be bound to evaluate homosexuality on a purely objective basis, the rest of society is free to apply whatever moral yardstick it chooses to that behavior.


55 posted on 07/08/2009 6:06:58 AM PDT by IronJack (=)
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