Debate Over Causes of Homosexuality
(1) Based on your current understanding of the issues, which direction do you lean in regarding the causes of homosexuality? What evidence do you base your beliefs on?
I tend to lean toward the idea that there is something you are born with that causes you to be attracted to the sex(es) that you are. However, it is an individual choice whether to act on these feelings. Some people are attracted to men, some women, some both, and some just fall in love regardless of sex.
(2) What are some potential social consequences of the belief that homosexuality is a “built in” trait? In other words, how might this belief benefit lesbians and gays? How might it harm them?
If homosexuality is built in, some bisexuals are not taken seriously. Also, then is introduced the argument that there is something biologically wrong with you or your mental state. It can be helpful because it will convince people who believe this that you did not make a choice and therefore can’t help who you fall in love with, but it can be challenging because it opens doors for people to say that there is something wrong with you.
(3) What are some potential consequences of the belief that homosexuality is the product of environmental factors? How might this belief benefit lesbians and gays? How might it harm them?
If homosexuality is a product of environmental factors, people tend to believe that they can’t trust gay teachers or gay parents because then their children will become gay due to example. Some people believe if it is environmental, that homosexuality can be cured. A positive of this, is that, if it’s caused by environment, some people will say there was nothing you could do about it when younger and therefore it is not your fault.
Exploring LGBT Politics: Nature, Nurture, and Identity
1. What did you find most interesting, enlightening, and/or surprising in FO Chapter 5? and in the selected reading you chose?
- The most interesting thing I found out in this chapter was Alfred Kinsey’s beliefs about human sexuality. Kinsey rejected the belief that there was a fixed homosexual identity that people were born with. He believed in stimulus and response and that, “the capacity of an individual to respond erotically to any sort of stimulus, whether it is provided by another person of the same or of the opposite sex, is basic in the species” (Male 660).
2. How did the reading help you better understand some LGBT issues that are still relevant today?
- The section titled, “After Kinsey”, helped me find out more about the differing views about the scales of how to judge heterosexuality and homosexuality. Magnus Hirschfeld identified two scales which produced the idea that there are three sexualities: heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual. Dr. Harry Benjamin created a scale which has six stages: 1-Transvestite (Pseudo), 2-Transvestism (Fetishistic), 3-Transvestism (True), 4-Transsexual (non-surgical), 5-True Transsexual (moderate intensity), 6-True Transsexual (high intensity). This helps me view the current views about transsexuality because I have this view from history to help me see what people may have believed at the time.
3. What new questions came up for you as a result of the reading? (We might use these as class discussion questions, so think in terms of questions that the whole class might respond to).
- A question that was in the reading that I also wonder, is Why do scientists search for a “gay gene” but not for a “straight gene”? Do you think we should be searching for one or the other? Or both? Or even neither? What is the best approach to figuring out how people become gay, is is natural or acquired? Should we continue to work at finding out the cause, whether it is in-born or environmental, or should we accept the fact and move on?
4. What topics from the reading were you inspired to seek out more information on? (create hyperlinks to relevant resources)
- I wanted to find out a little more about the Benjamin standards, and I discovered that for standards of care around the world, there are pretty different standards. In western countries the emphasis is on psychiatry or psychology, in Thailand the emphasis is on cross-living experience, and in Latin America the emphasis is typically on the ability to “pass”, however, surgeons don’t usually follow a particular set of standards in Latin American countries and surgeons tend to use their own criteria for eligibility for surgery. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standards_of_Care_for_the_Health_of_Transsexual,_Transgender,_and_Gender_Nonconforming_People
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