From: quilty@titan.ucc.umass.edu (Humberto Humbertoldi)
Subject: Re: Homosexuality is normal?
Keywords: homosexuality
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 19:59:14 GMT

In article <farenebt.721921196@craft.camp.clarkson.edu> farenebt@craft.camp.clarkson.edu (droopy) writes:
>jspence@cmptrc.lonestar.org (John Spence) writes:
>
>>I was reading an article by Frank Pittman, M.D, in the Jan/Feb 1992 _The
>>Family Therapy Networker_ entitled "It's not my Fault" and I thought
>>that it might be interesting to all the readers of this newsgroup.
>
>>    "There are efforts afoot to blame all of human behavior on some
>>biological factor outside our control, even one's choice of sexual
>>partners. Homosexuality has always struck me as a perfectly normal
>>capacity of the human animal, something anybody could no and many people
>>have done, as adolescents know. Because of the very real horrors of
>>homophobic persecution, there has been a frantic search for some
>>biological explanation fro this normal activity. From time to time a
>>researcher will come up with a finding that might hint that homosexual
>>males are biologically different from heterosexual males. The latest
>>discovery is that some gay men lack some cells straight men have in
>>their hypothalamus, an area that is connected with sexual
>>aggressiveness. However flimsy the evidence, biological theories make
>>heterosexual males feel safely "normal" and certifiably different from
>>homosexual men, who can in turn feel safely "not at fault" for doing
>>what feels normal.
>>    Theories of biological determinism may be P.C. and may relieve
>>adults who have already declared their sexual preference for life, but
>>these either/or theories create therapeutic problems for young people
>>who discover their normal and universal homosexual capacity before they
>>have gotten comfortable with their normal and universal heterosexual
>>capacity. They man panic, thinking they have no option but to lead a gay
>>life, when they might prefer a straight one. I find people often switch
>>back and forth between gay and straight, or both, and homosexuality is a
>>common, if not routine, phase of growing up. I is not P.C. to mention
>>this because it makes sexual preference seem a controllable choice."
>
>My first inclination is to disagree with this posting. My second inclination
>to is to say, even if this is true, so what? What business is it of
>yours what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes?
>Why should you care if those two adults are two men, two women, or one
>man and one woman? Why should it be any of your concern? That's all I
>want to know.

HUH? What are you disagreeing with in the reprinted article? Frank
Pittman did not say it was anyone else's business what two consenting
adults do in privacy.  The only points made, as far as I can tell (and
both are entirely correct, and important) are:  a) Human's all have a
capacity for both hetero- and homosexual desires and behavior. b)
Essentialist ideology which denies (a) can often have a harmful
psychological effect on people when they find their desires/actions do
not match up with the ideology.  This is clearly equally true of
someone labelled "heterosexual" who has homosexual desires/behaviors
and someone labelled "homosexual" who, etc.  (a) however, certainly
does not imply that anyone has an obligation towards any particular
set of sexual behavior (not even towards "bisexuality").
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Newsgroups: alt.politics.homosexuality