If sexuality is really flexible and if choice phys a role, can people really not be homosexual?
All sexualities are chosen and fluidity can go both ways. Everyone should be freed from the restraints that impede their full sexual expression. The solution to the question, "Why did you decide to be gay?" could be "When did you decide to be inflexibly heterosexual?"
It seems that something different is emerging on the street these days... It is composed of... ordinary women and men of all varieties who sleep with, fall in love with, live with and break up with both women and men over the courses of their lives...
This is not a movement, certainly not an identity; if pushed, some of these people, sighing, will call themselves bisexual or queer, but only as a political convenience, shorthand for “not straight.”
Stacey D'Erasrno, “Has Sexual Identity Outlived Its Usefulness?” New York Times. October 14.2001.
It’s more common for today’s young GLBT people to express and accept fluid gender and sexual identities.. . . On one hand, there’s a push for GLBT young people to come out at earlier ages, [Esther D. Rothblum, Ph.D.] notes; on the other, more young people are pausing indefinitely in what she calls the “lingering” category.
Tori DeAngelis, “A New Generation of Issues for GLBT Clients,” Monitor On Psychology 33, no. 2, http://www.apa.org/index.aspx (February 2002).
How important are biology and environment in determining sexual orientation?
Although this question could mean, "What makes many people gay and others straight?" most people are only interested in why some people are gay. The heterosexual norm usually remains an unexamined given.
Some search for a cause in order to alter or prevent homosexuality. Others claim there will be less homophobia if homosexuality is proven to be biological, that is, not really a choice, but a fate. Of course bigots who think homosexuality is biological could still want to suppress it. Nor could it be clear why same-gender behavior in other animal species (e.g., swans, Japanese macaques, and fruit flies) should be highly relevant to the discussion.
So-called scientific reports on homosexual causation have a large audience today due to the mass media's fascination with the question.
IS IT GENETIC?... A SHOW OF HANDS AND OTHER PARTS
Homosexual men and women are more likely to be left-handed than their heterosexual counterparts... canadian researchers said...
“Homosexuals More Likely to Be Left-Handed, Study,” Reuters, July 6. 2000.
Researchers... say the relative lengths of the forefinger and the fourth finger can provide a pointer to sexual orientation.
AFP, “Fingers Point to Sexuality,” The Age [Australia], March 29, 2000.
[Two professors] have documented differences in brain response of homosexuals and heterosexuals to sound.
Ben Wear, “UT Research Backs the Nature Theory of Homosexuality,” Austin American-Statesman, July 14, 2000.
Stiff homosexual organs are one-third of an inch longer, claims an article titled “The Relation between Sexual Orientation and Penile Size...”
Hank Hyena, “Research Claims Erect Gay Penises Are Bigger,” Salon.com, (November 4, 1999).
Yet there is little questioning from the heterosexist bias that is going to influence this research.
We are able to probably safely conclude from recent reports that a number of factors, both biological and environmental-nature and nurture-contribute to one's sexual orientation at a given time in one's life. It's also possible that male homosexuality entails different mixtures of factors than lesbianism does.
Do gender nonconforming girls and boys become gay adults?
Some retrospective studies have tried to "prove" that childhood effeminacy precedes male homosexuality. But when answering researchers' questions, adult gay men may merely be more open to recalling their early gender nonconformity than heterosexuals are. And although nearly 1/2 of gay men remember not fitting in with other boys, most "sissies" don't become gay men. The most reliable predictor for boys appears to be the intensity and persistence of their nonconformity.
Tomboy violations of gender norms do not correlate well with adult lesbian identity.
Related posts:
- How can Arab/Muslim people negotiate sexuality issues?
- People questioning their sexuality & Genderfluids.
RobertG: It seems that robots are getting ill quite often. But they'll continue to make noise, to hear, to smell as we do, the humans. I'm a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being... by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.