Same-gender sexuality

1
Same-gender sexuality

• Orientation
• Desire and Identification
• Behavior

2
Terms

• Homosexual, heterosexual
• Gay, Lesbian
• Inversion, perversion
• Orientation, choice, and lifestyle
• Effeminacy, masculinity
• Slang terms

3
Historical perspectives

• Judaism and the holiness code
• Genesis 191-13 Judges 19
• Leviticus 1822, 2013
• The other nations
• The Greeks
• India and the Kama Sutra

4
Pauline Christianity

• Romans 1 18-32
• Two sin lists I Corinthians 6 9-10 and
  I Timothy 1 8-11
• Valuing singleness and celibacy as a virtue
• Purity vs. sexual fallenness Ephesians 5 3-7
• Connection of sexual expression with marriage

5
The early church

• Boswell (1980, 1994) The Christian church
  accepted homosexual behavior prior to the 13th
  century.
• Neuhaus (1996) Did not!
• Wright (1990) Boswells book provides...not one
  firm piece of evidence that the teaching mind of
  the early church countenanced homosexual
  activity.

6
A loaded question

• Most of the literature on the homosexual
  represents either a polemic against the heinous
  abnormality of such activity, or a biased
  argument in defense of an individuals right to
  choose his patterns of sexual behavior (Kinsey,
  1948).
• The polarization of the debate has changed little
  in 50 years.

7
The source of homosexuality

• Biology (Neuro)Anatomy is destiny
• LeVay (1991) and hypothalamus structure
• Hamer (1993) and the argument from genetics (vs.
  Rice et al., 1999, and Sanders, in Rice.)
• Prenatal hormone imbalance (Meyer-Bahlburg, 1995)
• Gender nonconformity (Bailey Zucker, 1995)
• Birth order and equilibrium reproduction
  economics (Miller, 2000)
• Is the goal reproduction or gratification?

8
Other etiological theories

• Lack of opportunity
• Prison vs. free behaviors
• Seduction
• Family dynamics Homoerotic fixation (Freud)
• Social constructionism
• Choice

9
The Kinsey Scale Attraction and experience

• 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Equally heterosexual and homosexual
Predominately heterosexual incidentally homosexual
Predominately homosexual, incidentally
heterosexual
Exclusively homosexual, no heterosexual actions
or desire
Predominately homosexual, more than incidentally
heterosexual
Exclusively heterosexual, No homosexual actions
or desire
Predominately heterosexual, more than
incidentally homosexual
10
Is change possible?

• Until 1973, psychiatry said Yes.
• Over the past quarter century, the view that
  change is not possible has been asserted more and
  more strongly.
• Therapists who offer change services, or who even
  cooperate with patients who express a wish to
  change, have been called unethical.

11
Is change possible?

• However, the American Psychological Association
  has voted down motions to make such judgments.
• Essentialist heterosexism, essentialist
  homosexism, and sexual preference
• An interactionist model Meyer-Bahlburg et al,
  1995.
• Is change possible in adulthood?

12
What is the role of choice?

• Is choice ever etiological?
• For some, an undetermined proportion, who have
  chosen heterosexuality (Baumrind, 1995)
• Can choice affect the brain?
• Can choice affect self-concept?
• Can choice affect behavior?

13
The Kinsey Results

• Frequency estimates
• 37 of men, 13 of women had at least one
  same-gender experience to the point of orgasm
  since adolescence
• BUT only 9.13 overall had more than incidental
  experiences
• AND Sample not representative
• Later studies show much lower rates for all
  measures

14
NHSLS 3 aspects

• Desire 6 of men, 4 of women
• Behavior 4 since age 18
• Identification 2.8 of men, 1.4 of women