From: elf@halcyon.com (Elf Sternberg)
Subject: Recognition of object-of-affection.
Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 08:13:06 GMT

   In a recent debate, I argued that homosexuality, heterosexuality,
and racism were demonstrably similar behaviors.  That each is an
_exclusionary_ behavior, based on the belief that one _recognized kind
of individual_ (recognition based on some physionomic quality, such as
having a given set of genitalia or skin color) is preferable over
others.

   The debate centers around the notion that if racial tolerance is a
_teachable_ quality, then so too should bisexuality.  That a trend
_towards_ a more generalized pattern of acceptance is teachable in
sexual orientation, the model being racial tolerance education.

   However, my debator countered that sexuality and sexual orientation
are hardwired into the limbic system of the brain, whereas it was
"trivially demonstrable" that racism was not.  He also argued, while
attempts to educate against racism were successful (I would disagree
with this point as a matter of degree), attempts to convert homosexuals
to heterosexuality were consistent failures.

   Several points come to mind:

   [1] That approximately 1/5th of the cases studied in the two most
comprehensive research programs involving a biological etiology of
sexual orientation (22% in LeVay, 19% in UCLA) showed _no difference_
between the structures examined in these "self-identified life-long
homosexual men" and those of heterosexual men.

   [2] That these "consistent failure" rates apply only to _people
seeking therapy_, and that there may well be an entire subset of
individuals comfortably changing their self-identification, sexual
orientation, and partner 'type' of preference at will.  (I propose that
there _is_ such a set, and that I am one of them.  Thus began this
debate.)

      An individual may recognize his or her preference for same-sex
   relationships in early adolescence or at any point in the life
   cycle.  In a study on a sample of homosexual and bisexual men and
   women, it was concluded that people who had homosexual and
   bisexual attractions did not necessarily form then in childhood,
   nor did these attractions always remain constant throughout their
   lives.  People would change sexual preference because of
   situational opportunities or because of specific love
   relationships.  Early childhood experience was important, but it
   could not predict adult sexual choices.  Subjects often became
   homosexual after years of satisfactory heterosexual lives, or
   heterosexual after years of homosexual identity and/or behavior.
   ("Sexual Life-Styles and Nonheterosexual Options," Blumstein and
   Schwartz, 1974.)

   The question in mind is not "Is bisexuality inherently superior?"
although that can be concluded by examining the premise that "both
monosexual orientation and racism are similar, exclusionary, behaviors
based primarily in recognition."  Rather, I have to wonder if anyone
believes that _racism_ can be biologically determinant.  That _some_
homosexual behavior is biologically determinant has yet to be proven,
but both UCLA and LeVay have shown tantalizing evidence to that effect:
a given structure of the human brain may give rise to a same-gender
sexual preference, but that this structure is not always present in
"life-long" homosexuals indicates that other causes may give rise to
similar behavior.

   Is it possible, then, that equally subtle structures in the human
brain could give rise to target-specific xenophobia, and that,
competing with sex, skin color and racial trait could become the
recognized specific target?

   Which comes back to the subject at hand.  How does the brain do this
recognition process?  How do we learn to recognize the "appropriate"
sexual partner-type, and where in the brain is this wired in, if it's
wired in at all?

   As an aside, _fetishes_ become much the same sort of behavior in
this model.  A sexual preference for latex clothing would have been
impossible a century ago, so is a fetish a target-specific xenophilia,
and if so, how does target-recognition occur?

   It's been a long night...

            Elf !!!
--
Elf Sternberg.   (elf@halcyon.com)
Due to a bureaucratic error, you are offered the job of county coroner.
You seriously consider accepting the job because it offers:          __
A. Unclaimed watches and wedding rings.                              \/
B. Gold fillings and bridges.
C. Free blood.
D. A constantly changing array of new friends who aren't at all stuffy
   about what happens to their genitalia.
Newsgroups: alt.politics.homosexuality