Well i go to a all boys catholic school, so that comes with compulsuary RE classes, but in year 11 we do a subject called ethics and morality in place of it: it's based more on our responce to ethical issues... so the other day we started on the new topic of gay and lezbian rights.... so we talked about gay mariage and gay adoption and ivf.. So despite how often teenage boys at my school can be quite homophobic (ie using the word fag gay or homo in a negitive way) they were quite respectfull and maby perhaps a little bit ignorent... Most of the boys were not exactly pro gay adoption ect... i was going to rebutt but i realised i actualy didnt have the facts.... i could have if we spoke more on gay marriage i could have... but some intresting questions that i myself would like answers to... What effect dose 2 perants of the same sex have on childs development? If a person is in a hetro relationship then goes gay then goes straight ie married then split up for a member of the same sex then go back to opposite... is that person choosing there sexuality? is that person bi or is that person just questioning? how do you not let that anecdote let people think that being gay is a choice? Do all mainstreem scientists belive that being gay is a biological thing? Actualy could you just tell me some good arguments/ rebutts to defend gay rights...
For adoption you can tell them that the following organizations support same-sex adoption/parenting: American Psychiatric Association, the National Association of Social Workers, Child Welfare League of America, the American Bar Association, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychoanalytic Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, in the United Kingdom, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and in Canada, the Canadian Psychological Association. The American Psychological Association. For marriage you can tell them religion is not required to legally marry (since atheists legally marry). Domestic partnerships have 15-300 state rights depending on the state, civil unions have 300 state rights, and marriage has 1138 federal rights.
i'm not sure there is really much thats proven on anything about being gay in general, its debatable whether it's wholly biological, or nurtured, and of course theres so many people that think its a choice. read up on some twin studies, since identical twins have the same DNA and they arent always both gay or both straight, it's probably not completely biological, personally i think it probably has something to do with hormones and nutrient balances while in the womb, but i'm no expert. i will say that theres no way its a choice and i dont think its nurture, because otherwise, counternurturing from the world basically hating us would turn us straight again. people that "turn gay" during their mid-life didnt actually turn gay, its more that they realized they were so influenced by society when they were young that they just kept the fact that they were gay in the unconscious part of the back of their minds and it took them longer to sort everything out. in that case the choice is continuing the lie to keep everyone else happy or coming out for their own happiness. its just an unfortunate situation for everyone. no idea what 2 same sex parents have on a child, i dont believe it could turn the child gay, but i think it would be necessary to live in a very open minded community or the child would be at the wrong end of a lot of jokes.
There is actually a lot of stuff when it comes to sexuality and homosexuality. Especially when it comes to gay men - in one of my evolutionary psych books they are saying males are much more hard wired when it comes to sexual orientation (like the Xq28 mutation found in a lot of gay men) and the areas of the brain that deal with sexuality looking like heterosexual female brains. Also, for some reason people do not "study" lesbians or bisexuals as much as gay men.
Oh but I also wanted to say, you should stress to those people that it doesn't matter if it's a choice or genetic. Either way, a healthy same-sex relationship (like healthy hetero relationships) are OK and don't hurt anyone.
