Sex, gender, and sexual orientation

Look at the example above. There is nothing wrong with the scenario as stated—what many of us fail to recognize is that the surgeon is the child’s mother. A small but telling indication of sexism in our society.

Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation refers to who one desires or is attracted to as a sex partner. Heterosexuality, an ascribed status, is attraction to partners of the opposite sex and is encouraged by most, but not all, societies in order to insure procreation. In Melanesia, there are male rite-of-passage rituals in which homosexual behavior is normative. Among the Etoro of New Guinea, homosexual activity is part of the belief system, and heterosexual activity is engaged in sparingly and only for procreation. Bisexuality is sexual attraction to people of both sexes and is normative in parts of Mombassa, Kenya where the activity is based on extreme social differentiation between males and females. Homosexuality, an ascribed status, is attraction to partners of the same sex: the word “gay” traditionally refers to homosexual males, and the term “lesbian” traditionally refers to homosexual females. For our purposes, when referring to both sexes we will use the term homosexual, when referring to homosexual males we will use the term gay, and when referring to homosexual females we will use the term lesbian. Although there are many socio-religious, and sociocultural ideas and ideologies concerning homosexuality, consider the following information: about 10% of the population OF THE WORLD is gay; children raised by gay or lesbian parents are no more or less likely than children raised by straight parents to become gay or lesbian; all of our studies show that children raised by gay or lesbian parents are as psychologically normal as children raised by straight parents; studies indicate that there is NO CHOICE—some people are born homosexual just as others are born heterosexual; animals, as well as humans, engage in homosexual activity; homosexuals are less likely than the straight population to be child molesters (over 98% of all child molesters are straight because child sexual molestation is about age fetishes and uncontrolled age-inappropriate sexual desires); gay teenagers are 5 times more likely to commit suicide than straight teenagers.

Could you change your sexual orientation? If you are heterosexual, how did you “get that way”? What caused you to become straight? How many sexes are there? What is the scientific basis for your answer?

Homophobia

Some of our religious and cultural attitudes are so homophobic—homophobia is hatred and discrimination directed against homosexuals, based on an exaggerated fear of homosexuality—that they cause gay bashing and murders such as the 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shephard who was virtually crucified on a barbed-wire fence. The Reverend Pat Robertson of the Christian Coalition urged people to call on their Congress members to vote against the Hate Crimes Bill which was finally passed in 2009. Jerry Falwell of the Moral Majority, as well as the Christian Coalition, and the Southern Baptist Convention instituted a boycott of Disney because Disney provides healthcare, insurance, and retirement benefits to domestic partners. Beginning in 2005, a fanatical, fundamentalist, religious, so-called Christian group out of Kansas called the Westboro Baptist Church has been harassing the funerals of Iraqi war dead saying that the soldier/sailor/marine died because “God hates fags,” and the Iraq war and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 are ways in which God is punishing the United States because of our acceptance of homosexuality.