What the **** is homosexuality?

Hello and welcome to EC.

To answer your questions, I would say that most people would define homosexuality as an attraction to the same gender. I wouldn't really call it a condition because there's nothing wrong with being homosexual. Most scientists agree that homosexuality is not a choice that a person makes, and a lot of fingers are pointed at epigenetics as a reason that may cause it. Percentages of LGBT people are up in the air. The US census database says about 4% of the population is LGBT, although scientists Alfred Kinsey said upwards of 20% of a given population expressed "homosexual attraction to some degree." The alien thing actually sounds like something an anti-gay person would argue. Procreation should be the least of the human race's worries with 7.1 billion people on the planet.

Hope I contributed to discussion.

 

its an attraction to people of the same sex. associating it as a condition would just make some narrow minded people think it`s an illness that has a cure

 

I think using the word condition here, although accurate in its basic form is dangerous because in common english now condition has become associated with "medical condition". I think it is good to dissociate anything not medically related from the term condition, and thus why people get up in arms when it is mentioned.

One more thing I will add to your conversation, is that those %'s you posted are the % of people who identify as gay. I bet if you count the number of people repressing their true feelings, or in the closet, or living in denial, you would see those numbers rise significantly.

There are many theories on being gay from genetics, to epigenetics, to evolutionary reasons but I am not an expert on them since I don't really care too much. Granted, it would be cool to know, I know that I cannot change my attraction and might as well be happy with it. Which I am. Guys are awesome. There is a reason half the population likes them.

Why you are gay is a question that may never be answered in our lifetime. But what will be answered is what you choose to do with...1) Question the unknown and be confused and unhappy, or 2) Accept and make the most out of it. It is not wrong to seek answers, but seek them out of curiosity and not out of need.

 

Being attracted to the same sex is what makes you gay. You sound a little bit like my brother when I told him that I am a transgender female and told me that I was wrong and that I had a personality disorder. Which meant that he was wrong. I am a psychology student. Being gay is not a condition its just a sexual preference. For instance when you ask someone what they're attracted to they will say "I like women" or "I like men". But I definitely can say that people are just born gay, trans, etc.

I hope this helps.

 

Well, saying "homosexuality is a condition", to me, sounds like stating the obvious; I mean what would it be if not a condition? A lie?

Homosexuality is essentially having sexual and in most cases romantic attraction towards persons of the same sex. If you are a guy, and you're mostly aroused by men, you probably aren't heterosexual. But I guess straight guys could find some exceptional men attractive as well. There are some women I find I'm very much attracted to even though I'm 99,999% gay so I suppose it works the other way around too.

I'm not so sure that people are born with a sexuality. When I was 2(or 3 or 4), my best friend (a girl) and I wanted to get married and we were sure we would... I don't think it's strictly environmental, but I don't think it's inherent either, a bit of both probably. Personality is an emergent system after all. Then again I'm not an expert (obviously not, I'm basing my hypothesis purely on personal experience ) so anyone who has knowledge of the general consensus on the matter is free to correct me.

Although I think it's important to study why some individuals are homosexual, I think people focus too much on WHY. I think it made absolutely no difference even if we all had at some point of our lives said: "Fuck it, girls/guys suck. I'm gay/lesbian now". Even if it were a choice, we still wouldn't be doing anything 'wrong'. (protip: the next time someone says homosexuality is a choice, instead of countering them straight-on with facts stating otherwise, ask them first: "And so what?")

 

A condition perhaps but a bit reductionist don't you think? We're dropping homosexuality to a dangerous level that was used pre-1974 and I think most of us know what happened in 1974 (see: DSM)

I know you already mentioned you don't mean it as a mental or medical condition but I just feel calling it a condition makes it sound like a suffering.

Homosexuality just is. I suppose this is a zen manner of putting it but that's how I feel anyway. As you said, something that restricts or modifies. Restricts or modifies now makes one believe there is a norm (see: heterosexuality)

You mention green eyes. Green eyes are recessive to brown hence restriction or modification to norm but we all know nothing is wrong with having green eyes or blue or brown. Nobody (at least I think nobody) discriminates against green eyes but they do against homosexuality as we all know. So to reduce it to a condition, even by your seemingly safe definition is pre-1974 thinking in my opinion. We call it a condition, we call it a restriction or modification and that represents that there must be a norm and that we LGBT are a deviation of said norm.

Just my thoughts

Foxface

 

Having red hair is an infrequent condition occurring naturally in 1-2% of the world population, as is being 7+ feet tall, but I don't think anyone would categorize those as an abnormality. Homosexuality appears to be on the order of more than 4% of the population, so it is more common than being a redhead, which we consider quite normal, if infrequent. We have been conditioned to think of sex as something to be concealed and kept from public view, particularly if it is gay sex; that is what makes it seem "abnormal" to some people, and abominable to homophobic people. Maybe we should be asking why homophobia isn't considered "abnormal" instead of homosexuality since it makes about as much sense as scorning redheads would be.

 

A sexual orientation. It is only a condition in the most abstract of senses - a state of being. Usually, people use that term to imply disease.

 

wow - so pretty much so far the men are agreed that being gay is only about having sex.

and I got flamed yesterday for only wanting to have relationships with womyn - am I seeing things wrong or is there really a difference between the way genders view life?

I don't just have SEX here, I have relationships, I have had long term partnerships, I know many lesbian couples that have lasted 30 + years even though marriage has not been possible and theirs are some of the greatest relationships I know.

This is NOT a disorder or a disease - love is love.

 

Rare occurrence is not the same as 'abnormal.' Queers have been part of our species as far back as there is history or record to note. There are cultures where being queer is given special statue... 'two spirit people,' and have been the visionaries, medicine people, spirit guides and bearers of the cultures traditions. Does that sound like 'abnormal?' So yes, it's about more than who we have sex with!

Don't let the narrow bigoted understanding of heteronormative culture define what and who you are! We have a history. We can have a place in our culture and contribute in ways than hetero-normies can't. What's 'abnormal' is a culture that only recognizes one part of our wonderful diverse human experience.

 

One must always consider a word's meaning in terms of its current use and not abstract definitions removed from context. A "condition" is understood as a disease, or at the very least a negative abnormality.

When I communicate with words, I am responsible for choosing the right words with due regard to the way that they will be understood and not based on sterile definitions.

Even once-familiar words can take on new meanings, like "gay", for example.

 

If an alien landed, they'd probably wonder why we repress so much of our sex drive. You mistake social prohibition with "bizarre." Why is left handedness any less strange to an alien? Objectively, we are nowhere near up there on the freak scale. There are people with nostrils on their head, down's syndrome, bipolar, multiple personalities, OCD, agoraphobia. If i'm an alien, i would find all that pretty damn strange.

But why should it matter anyway? This is all part of the great diversity of life on earth. If you want a simple answer i would just say it's a natural variation we're born with. It's also harmless. There's no reason at all for you to feel like you have a disorder, and nothing good can come from that.

 

It looks to me that you want someone to tell you how to reconcile homosexuality with perceived illogicality. But I can't, and I doubt anyone can. Sexuality, of any type, isn't something to be reduced to logic or science in this way. Sure, determine a cause, if you want. But don't try to apply any of it to the way you live or think about sexuality. Humans don't, and shouldn't, base our lives and actions off what is natural. We do any number of 'unnatural things', like wear clothes, cure disease, refrain from violence etc. I realise I'm using a limited definition of natural, since technically anything anyone does is natural, but I think you take my point here. There is more to the human mind than just biology.

 

Its just a natural variation within humanity.

 

did you knew same as portrayed in some horror movies, reminded me that hospitals during last century used to make illegal treatments to gay/lesbian patients, calling it actually a disorder, and those treatments same as the ones used for mental ill patients were even more screwed up than not having threatment at all for what they considered diseases

 

Every "what?" question is really "what is it like?"

I think that part of your distress may be due to the singular experience that being homosexual is, i.e. it isn't like anything else, there is no clearly physical correlate to explain it nor anything comparable in human experience.

But why do you need to have an explanation? That is the more intriguing question...