Dr. John Corvino

This morning I attend a lecture at my college that had Dr. John Corvino as its speaker. He is a gay rights activist and philosophy teacher who travels around the U.S challenging people to rethink things as he asks "what is morally wrong with homosexuality and if it's not, then what is the fuss all about."

He gave 3 main reasons as to why people are against homosexual behaviour. These are the notes that I took.

1) The bible condemns it
-it is stated in leviticus that a man shall not lie with another man as with a woman and that it is an abomination.
- However, leviticus also says in the same letter that eating shellfish is an abomination and wearing a coat of weaved fibers is an abomination.:eek:
- Often people have their own beliefs and then they use bible passeges to "back up" their claim.
- These people usually pick out these verses out of context to fit their argument.
- Also in the bible there are verses that approve of slavery, and most people would agree that is wrong

-the basic idea is that these passages are based upon the opinions of the person who wrote them at the time, and therefore doesn't hold the same meaning to another person.

2) It is Harmful

- there are arguments that claim that being gay causes AIDS, although it has been proven that both men and women, gay and straight can be infected with AIDS. Being gay has nothing to do with causing AIDS, AIDS is caused by a virus.
- But it is also proven that certain sexual and non-sexual practices of gay/lesbian people are at greater risk of AIDS, but so are Drug addicts that share needles
-There is an argument that the "parts don't fit", which is rediculous because the bottom line is that they actually do and if they don't, then you're probably doing it wrong. Also gay couples are not reduced just to one practice. Surprisengly, (for straight people) not ever gay male couple practices anal sex.
-The last argument he mentioned was that homosexuality threatens the traditional family. Just because there are gay people in this world doesn't mean that heterosexual couples will stop having relationships and marriages. It is not like Bill coming up to his fiance and saying "well we were going to get married, but now that Alex and Joe can, I am calling it off" It is not the "gay agenda" to rip apart peoples lives.

3) It is wrong because it is unnatual

- many people abuse the word unnatural a lot. How many unnatural things do you do in a day? Did you wake up by a rooster, No an alarm clock. Unnatural. You bathed sometime during the day, did you jump in a lake? No you used plumbing of some sort. Unnatural. When you travel long distances, do you walk? No most people drive their car. Once again, Unnatural.
- certain arguments claim that animals don't do that. But there are scientific studies that show they actually do. Frequently.
-The nature/nurture argument. Born with it or choice. There are both pros and cons with both sides. With Nature, though they may feel these feelings toward the same sex for as long as they can remember, they probably had other feelings that they suppress. Like angry feelings, you probably had angry feelings toward someone who cut you off on the highway, but you kept your feelings inside ( I hope ). For Nurture though we are trained by our parents early on about their beliefs, every person is entitled to their own belief.
-Some say that it is gross or disgusting. Well I am sure there a lot of things that people find gross or disgusting but they are not morally wrong. You wouldn't condemn a spider for bieng morally wrong. You wouldn't blame a mortuary technicians for being morally wrong.
- It is also stated that sex is wrong if is not for proceating, even though straight people lead less than perfect lives and the moment a gay person follows the same path it is wrong.



There are not too many differences between gay and straight relationships, just simple communication would help resolve such differences.

Kudos for you if you read the whole thing. I hope this information comes in handy for you all, whether if you are first coming out, in a GSA, or get in a heated argument with a bible bashing liberal. If you wish to do further research or view photos and videos of Dr. Corvino, then just visit his website: www.johncorvino.com