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Sexual Reorientation: The gay culture war is about to turn [message #51243]

Thu, 03 July 2008 01:12

E.J.

Really getting into it

Location: U.S.
Registered: August 2003
Messages: 565

Sexual Reorientation: The gay culture war is about to turn chemical.
By William Saletan, Slate

Last month, when the California Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage a constitutional right, it repeatedly invoked the precedent of interracial marriage. An attorney involved in the case protested, "There is no evidence to establish that a homosexual lifestyle is an immutable characteristic such as race."

He's wrong. There's lots of evidence. More of it just came out this week. It's been driving the gay rights debate all along, away from the clutches of religion and into the clutches of science. The trend is inexorable, but its implications are about to change. The culture war over homosexuality is dying—and a chemical war is threatening to take its place.

Homosexuality used to be regarded as a lifestyle, something you freely chose or rejected. We discouraged, condemned, and punished it like any other sin.

Then along came science. Study after study found differences between gay and straight brains. Homosexuality came to be viewed less as a lifestyle and more as an orientation, too deeply rooted to be freely rejected. Gay activists embraced and trumpeted these studies. Public opinion shifted. Punishment and condemnation began to subside.

But the march of science into the gay brain hasn't stopped. It has continued, seeking to understand not just what doesn't cause homosexuality—playing with dolls, growing up with a strong mother, watching Will and Grace—but what does. And the more we understand these biological factors, the closer we get to being able to change them.

For the full story go here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2193841/

(\\__/) And if you don't believe The sun will rise
(='.'=) Stand alone and greet The coming night
(")_(") In the last remaining light. (C. Cornell)

Re: Sexual Reorientation: The gay culture war is about to tu [message #51245 is a reply to message #51243]

Thu, 03 July 2008 03:16

unsui

Likes it here

Registered: September 2007
Messages: 338

No Message Body

[Updated on: Fri, 24 October 2008 18:02]

Re: Sexual Reorientation: The gay culture war is about to tu [message #51246 is a reply to message #51245]

Thu, 03 July 2008 08:10

acam

On fire!

Location: UK
Registered: July 2007
Messages: 1849

I rather hope that they never find out a difference that could be the reason just as no-one yet can diagnose the next Mozart or Francis Bacon in the womb and I hope they never will.

I wonder why I hope that?

Love,
Anthony

Re: Sexual Reorientation: The gay culture war is about to tu [message #51253 is a reply to message #51246]

Thu, 03 July 2008 14:50

unsui

Likes it here

Registered: September 2007
Messages: 338

No Message Body

[Updated on: Fri, 24 October 2008 18:02]

Re: Sexual Reorientation: The gay culture war is about to tu [message #51254 is a reply to message #51246]

Thu, 03 July 2008 14:53

arich

Really getting into it

Location: Seaofstars
Registered: August 2003
Messages: 563

I agree with you whole heartedly on that one Anthony…. I quite like who I am despite the attempts from the age of eleven very aggressive attempts to change my sexual orientation.

I never could understand why people thought it so terrible to be same sex attracted, or say things like “who would choose to be gay”??? I find it a very lovely thing and the only reason I ever tried having relationships with the opposite sex is because of the treatment I did have as a youth. Don’t get me wrong I find both human forms beautiful always have, but it’s the guy things both physically emotionally and mentally that get my engine revved.

Besides, I really do think it is a natural mechanism that could help keep the human over population down. No way to tell, but that reasoning has always appealed to me, if there actually has to be a reason!

[Updated on: Thu, 03 July 2008 16:49]

People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm

Re: Sexual Reorientation: The gay culture war is about to tu [message #51255 is a reply to message #51254]

Thu, 03 July 2008 16:39

Roger

Really getting into it

Location: USA
Registered: February 2007
Messages: 522

The Greeks used homosexuality as a form of birth control and to control the population. Men would make deals with younger men or boys to provide them with an education and home in exchange for sex. this prevented unwanted pregnancys and afforded poor boys an education so they could better their lives.

If you stand for Freedom, but you wont stand for war, then you dont stand for anything worth fighting for.

Re: Sexual Reorientation: The gay culture war is about to turn [message #51258 is a reply to message #51243]

Thu, 03 July 2008 17:06

CallMePaul

Really getting into it

Location: U.S.A.
Registered: April 2007
Messages: 907

>Liberals are slow to see what's coming. They're still fighting the culture war. The Toronto Star, like other papers, finds a neuroscientist who thinks the new study "should erode the moral judgments often made against homosexual preferences and rebut any argument that it is a mere a lifestyle choice." Well, yes. But then what? The reduction of homosexuality to neurobiology doesn't mean your sexual orientation can't be controlled. It just means the person controlling it won't be you.

What a sad thought. Sad

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