Mucca said:
So what are some of these bizarre theories?
I'll relay some of the information that I found interesting anyway
We looked at Kinsey's continuum of sexual orientation (a scale of 0-6, 0 being exclusively heterosexual and 6 being homosexual). He proposed the idea that only 3% of males and 1% of females fall under 6...37% of males and 13% of females fall anywhere beyond 0.
45% of Canadians believe that homosexual relations are ALWAYS wrong.
We talked about stereotypes including the typical "flamboyant" homosexual man or "dyke", child molestation, people being mentally imbalanced, and over-sexed. We also talked about children being raised in homosexual marriages/relationships and basically how as long as there is at least one responsible adult (regardless of sexual orientation) who has the happiness of the child at first interest, children will grow up just fine.
Homosexuality was classified as a disease in the DSM up until 1973.
So onto the theories of why people are homosexual...
Biologic theories include genetics...there was an interesting study with twins: 52% of identical twins were both homosexual whereas only 22% of fraternal twins were...another theory is prenatal differentiation where certain hormonal imbalances cause homosexuality. This one is crazy to me but actually has been proven in small numbers but consistently nonetheless: the more male babies a woman has the greater the chance that each subsequent baby will have homosexual tendencies.
There was another crazy theory proposed that gay men had a more "feminized" hypothalamus...but the theory could never be replicated so therefore it is bollocks in my opinion
So if it's not biology than is it through learning/nature? Well that doesn't seem to be the case either...in a homophobic/homonegative society why would parents want to inflict homosexual tendencies on their children?
Oh yeah, my professor was telling us about a client he had a few years ago. This man was young, very intelligent and good-looking and made an appointment to see him (my prof is a psychologist/therapist as well) one day and didn't specify the purpose of it. When he came in, he said straight out that he wanted a cure for homosexuality. He explained how his family was going to disown him and cast him as basically a leper or something if he could not be changed after walking out of the office. My professor was absolutely stunned. So the family was all there sitting outside the office and my prof called them in and told them he was going to grow up a successful, productive and intelligent man who has a wonderful partner. And the mother started crying and said if he couldn't help her son change then he was officially disowned.