Posted on 03/26/2004 3:45:37 PM PST by Guillermo
You're also right that a poll of a couple of dozen queers doesn't count as an official scientific study, but it is suggestive that (at the time) none of them even KNEW a gay person who hadn't been through the wringer as a kid or early teen. I'm not saying that they made a choice to be gay, but they were using sexual deviancy as a coping mechanism for their personal pain just as a drug abuser would turn to coke to mask the symptoms of a deeper problem. (And they didn't try to lie to themselves about it.) I don't find it a leap to believe that an entire generation of fatherless, latch-key kids would breed a higher rate of dysfunctional adults. Especially when they're told that their lonely childhood was normal.
It's also hard when I see, as a mother, entire classrooms of boys drugged and punished for normal male behavior. I see fatherless teenage boys treated as potential rapists and murders for liking guns, wrestling and fast cars. Boys are given the message, more and more these days, that being male is evil. Is it any wonder that they would embrace a female nature? On top of that, let's give them the message that something is wrong with THEM for 18 years and they might actually believe it. So they look for the answers and the media tells them that they might be gay. Hey! That answers a lot of questions! Catch them at an ambiguous age before they've had the chance to establish a healthy relationship with a member of the opposite sex, show them good feelings, give them acceptance and watch them settle down into the role.
In the case of females, lets take away every decent male role model or relationship that a young girl could ever have, give them the message the men are stupid, abusive pigs over and over again and tell them that they can only be understood and accepted by other women. As females (primarily) need to have trust to enjoy a sexual relationship, why would they not have a better time with another women than with an evil man?
Feelings can be twisted up a lot more by psychology than biology and, the majority of the time, being gay is a coping mechanism.
When I was growing up (in the 1960's), a family moved in next door to us. They were a very nice family with two daughters and a son. The son was 7 or 8. He loved to play with dolls and was often seen carrying one. It was clear that he would probably grow up to be gay. There was no evidence that this family were abusive in any way (unless you consider letting their son do his own thing to be abuse) and the daughters did very well. From what I have heard many gays trace their feelings for the same sex to their earliest years. Personally I know that I liked girls from a very young age. I don't dispute that there are many people within an uncertain identity who get introduced to homosexuality through abusive experiences. But there appear to be a significant number of people who are either attracted to their own sex or identify with the opposite sex from a very early age, without any particular pressure to do so. It appears that many tomboys grow up to be lesbians.
In the case of single parent households headed by the mother, from what I have seen the boys often turn out to be more, rather than less heterosexual. Both boys and girls clearly need a father, but ensuring that they don't become gay is not the main reason for this.
I had a friend with a son who, at an early age, hated guns, dinosaurs, lizards, etc. He liked to play dress up in beautiful clothes and enjoyed drawing flowers. He reacted to rough play like a typical girl; insulted, hurt and confused. When I saw this kid playing, I really felt like I was looking at a little girl. It was amazing.
He's in junior high now and is shaping up to be quite the romantic metrosexual. The girls love him and he "falls in love" with a different female on a weekly basis. He may still turn out to be gay or bi, but right now it doesn't look like he's going that way. Adoring women and women's things does not necessarily translate into wanting to BE a woman.
This point gets argued back and forth on FR all the time. Everybody has their own perspective and personal experience bearing on this issue. Someday science will probably understand the brain enough to give definitive answers that will settle many of these arguments. What will really count is not our opinions and anecdotal observations, but clear scientific proof of the relative importance of various possible origins of homosexuality.
pathetic....
No, what really counts is in the Bible, aka "the Good Book". Maybe you've heard of it? If not, you might want to check it out sometime.
I'm betting that you yourself have not read the Bible all that thoroughly.
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