Homosexuality provides a benefit to modern society.

Since this is shared burden of proof, I will begin my arguments. I shall use the figure of 1.7%-5% to represent the number of adult homosexuals in the US (discounting Wash DC, because that, being a district entirely urban is an outlier of 10%[0]), and will apply at most an estimate of 8-9% to include for people who are closeted. (Note that these numbers also include transsexuals and bisexuals) 1. Overpopulation and reproduction I know as surely all of you know, that there is a big overpopulation crisis. There are currently 7.1 billion people in the world [1] and rising exponentially [2]. Now, regardless of whether you think that our current population crisis is really a problem, at some point, our population will rise above the resources we are able to produce. As the limiting factors of war, disease and lack of other resources decline in ability to effect our population, we will eventually hit a breaking point. I'm sure you know that gay sex does not reproduce under normal circumstances. Thus, homosexuals will not contribute to overpopulation, because they themselves will not produce a significant number of children. (Yes I know that for women there is invitro-fertilization and other such methods, but not everyone does that) Now, do I believe that a 8% gay population will single-handedly stop exponential population growth? No. That would be unreasonable. However, you must admit that they are somewhat helping to curb the rampant population growth, and 8% of people not reproducing is not a small amount. The gay population will be able, by there mere existence, to somewhat stifle population growth, without destroying reproduction altogether, providing a small overall benefit to society. 2. Adoption Now, if you look at the number of gay couples with children, you can see that, while not the majority, a whopping 21% of children being raised by same sex couples are either step-children to one of them, or they are adopted. Compared to the 4-5.5 percent for straight couples (married and unmarried respectively)[3]. Now, why is adopting children important? If you look at some of the statistics, a large number of these people become involved in crime and drugs or prostitution. These people in orphanages are also more likely to commit suicide [4]. 3. Liberalism and sexual repression People look at sex as something dirty, to not be discussed in public, and how sex should not be discussed in schools. Homosexuality has drawn attention to the issues of sex and sexuality, which need to be discussed and evaluated. STD rates being what they are, it is important to make sure that people know about safe sex. The topic of homosexuality will bring about more discussion on prevention of STDs and access to testing for STDs. The fear tactic does not work for sex and drugs. [5] Knowledge can do only so much, but an open discussion, and not shoving these things under the mattress will lead to more of a recognition of the problems, and a better way of handling solutions to these problems. By understanding of human sexuality, we will try tactics that work. By not attempting to suppress sexuality, straight or gay, we can have safer sex, and promiscuous people can get told to get more frequent checkups for STD's. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org... (Yeah I know you're not supposed to use Wikipedia. Whatever. There isn't any potential bias in this one) [1] http://www.census.gov... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org... [3] http://www.lifelongadoptions.com... [4] http://skywardjourney.wordpress.com... [5] http://rhrealitycheck.org...