Chick-fil-A Anti-Gay Controversy: Gay Employees Speak Out
Elected officials have urged Chick-fil-A to stay out of their cities, the Jim Henson Company has severed ties, and gay rights groups are organizing national protests against the fried chicken chain. But at the Chick-fil-A where Andrew works in northern Alabama, business has been booming over the past few weeks.
On Wednesday — dubbed “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” by former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — lines are stretching out the front door and the parking lot is packed with customers coming out to support company chief executive Dan Cathy, who recently came out against same-sex marriage with statements that have polarized lovers of the fast-food chain.
Andrew, a gay 24-year-old who has been working at the northern Alabama Chick-fil-A since January, sat in his car smoking a cigarette and watching the crowd during a break earlier Wednesday.
“I call it hater appreciation day,” said Andrew, who asked that his last name be withheld out of fear he’d be fired. “It’s very, very depressing.”
Chick-fil-A has long come under fire from activists for giving millions to groups that advocate against gay rights and even support ex-gay therapy, but the fire has ratcheted up in recent weeks, following interviews in which Cathy said he was “guilty as charged” of supporting “the biblical definition of the family unit” and that gay marriage invites “God’s judgment on our nation.”
Now, Chick-fil-A sits at the center of furious debate over same-sex marriage, gay rights and free speech, with politicians, activists, and newspaper editorial boards weighing in from all sides.
The company has remained mostly silent on the issue. On the company’s Facebook page, a post declares, “The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender.” (On the page, the company also maintains that it severed ties with the Jim Henson Company, first). The company did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Huffington Post, and Dan Cathy has not given any subsequent interviews since the controversy began.
Another group staying mostly silent on the issue are the gay, lesbian and bisexual employees who staff the restaurants. They say that, like most employees of the company, they aren’t allowed to speak to the press.
For these employees, the last couple of weeks have been very difficult.
One gay employee who works at Chick-fil-A headquarters in Atlanta, Ga., and asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job, says he is getting it from both sides. On the one hand, there is the customer who came in and said he supported Dan Cathy and then “continues to say something truly homophobic, e.g. ‘I’m so glad you don’t support the queers, I can eat in peace,'” the employee, who is 23 and has worked for Chick-fil-A since he was 16, wrote in an email. On the other hand, he continued, “I was yelled at for being a god loving, conservative, homophobic Christian while walking some food out to a guest in a mall dining room.”
He disagrees with Cathy’s views, but the reaction from the public has been just as hard to swallow.
“It seems like very few people have stopped to think about who actually works for Chick-fil-A and what those people’s opinions are,” he wrote. “They are putting us in a pot and coming to support us or hate us based on something they heard and assume we agree with.”
Gabriel Aguiniga, a gay employee at a Chick-fil-A in Colorado, also said the hardest part hasn’t been hearing Cathy’s comments. Instead, “[it’s] constantly having people come up to you and say, ‘I support your company, because your company hates the gays,'” Aguiniga, 18, wrote in an email. “It really takes a toll on me.”
Management is encouraging employees at the stores to remain neutral, no matter what customers say, according to multiple workers interviewed by The Huffington Post.
“Our managers have recommended just saying ‘Thank you for your business’ if a customer says they agree with Cathy’s comments, rather than agreeing or disagreeing with them,” Katie, an openly gay Chick-fil-A employee in the greater New Orleans area, told HuffPost in an email.
But staying neutral can be difficult when it feels like the world is passing judgment on everyone associated with the company.
“Now, anyone that works there is stuck with a stigma of being homophobic, even when many of us are far from it,” Katie said. One of her coworkers, who supports same-sex marriage, has had people say things like, “Don’t give me that hate sh*t,” and “I hope you choke on that chicken,” while she was handing out samples.
But for Katie, the hardest part hasn’t been the actions of customers and protesters, it’s the money the company gives to anti-gay groups.
“At the end of the day part of our profits still go towards Dan Cathy, and subsequently, all the organizations he supports,” she said. Katie is now actively searching for work elsewhere. Many of her coworkers, she said, are looking for new jobs, too.
The groups Chick-fil-A gives to include the Family Research Council and Exodus International, according to Equality Matters, an initiative associated with the progressive Watchdog group, Media Matters. The Family Research Council is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, while Exodus International is a Christian Ministry that has long endorsed ex-gay therapy, a controversial practice of “curing” gay people that mainstream mental health organizations have disavowed. (In recent months, the president of Exodus has tried to distance his group from the idea that gay people can be “cured.”)
Several of the gay and lesbian employees interviewed by The Huffington Post said that they liked their work, and had never witnessed incidents of homophobia or discrimination on the job. But Chick-fil-A restaurants are operated by independent owners, and employee experience can vary widely depending on the person running a particular chain.
Kellie, a 23-year-old gay woman from Georgia who also requested her last name be withheld for fear of being outed in the press, worked at two different Chick-fil-A locations in Georgia. She loved working at the first location, she said, where nobody ever said anything homophobic or discriminatory. But at the second location, in Atlanta, “there was a lot of general homophobia.” Managers would frequently make homophobic jokes, she said, and she felt that if she were to tell her colleagues she was gay, she would be fired. Eventually, she quit.
Another former employee, who worked at the Chick-fil-A in Chicago, said he thought the culture of the company encouraged homophobia.
“It’s a very monochromatic, white, male driven company,” said Andrew Mullen, a gay 26-year-old who quit his job last winter after less than a year with the company. Once, Andrew recalled, a company operator leading an employee training session, saw two men kissing on the patio outside the restaurant and proclaimed to the group he was leading that he thought it was “disgusting.” Mullen later told the person in charge of corporate training about the incident, and the man was fired. “[This person] was very apologetic for it, and there are a few people here like that, but from what I saw, it’s a predominantly pro-ignorant culture.”
But the gay employee who works at headquarters in Atlanta disagreed with this assessment. Aside from the occasional homophobic joke or comment outside of working hours, he said, his experience with the company has been “extremely positive.”
Asked in June, Andrew, the employee in Alabama, would have said his experience was positive, too. He had never explicitly told any of his colleagues he was gay, but he felt comfortable at work and liked the operator of his store. But recently, Andrew says the atmosphere at work has grown nearly intolerable. Although plenty of his coworkers have said they don’t agree with Cathy’s views, on “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day,” one colleague told him proudly that his friends would be eating the fried chicken sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Last week, when he went out to the parking lot to help a trucker (not directly employed by Chick-fil-A) unload a shipment of goods, the trucker turned to Andrew confidentially and said, “If I see one more faggot at a Chick-fil-A protesting, I’m going to be sick.”
“I just looked at him and said, ‘I don’t want to hear that,'” Andrew recalled. “I thought, Chick-fil-A doesn’t promote hatred, we don’t cuss and we don’t hate,” he continued. But experiences over the last couple of weeks have shifted his views: “Honestly, I really wish they would just go out of business, I do.”
Fagbug – Documentry
Erin Davies was attending an event in support of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans-gender rights when she walked back to her car and discovered her Volkswagen Beetle had been vandalized – someone had spray painted FAG across one side and U R GAY on the other.
Davies was shocked and angered, but rather than simply have her car repainted, she chose to use the event to raise public awareness of hate crimes against the LGBT community. Davies mapped out a road trip visiting 58 cities across the United States, some with supportive LGBT communities and others in locations where anti-gay hate crimes had occurred in the past.
Davies brought along a small camera crew to document the reactions to her defaced automobile, and Fagbug is a documentary that charts the progress of Davies’ trip across the country, as well as recording how people responded, both positively and negatively, to the provocative statement presented by her car. Fagbug was an official selection at the 2009 San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.
My Breif
I Am Who I Am
Most of us know who we are or how we want to be. What most people don’t know or recognize, is that there is a very large community in this world that is fighting every day trying to fit in and figure out who they are. The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Community is growing every day and they are still struggling in this society to be recognized as a normal person. So why am I interested in this project? I’m interested in it because I am one of these people fighting everyday trying to figure who they are. I am one of the people I am trying to help.
I am Bisexual.
I am currently feeling the pressure from others to answer why I am bisexual. That is not a question I can answer just yet. I am also feeling the pressure from family members who don’t know how to handle this information or understand why I am the way I am.
There are so many young adults discovering who they are and realizing what their homosexuality means to them. Mose of them are scared and confused. Some of them are dealing with some of the consequences. Being abandoned, hate crime and being discriminated against. There are also the people who are struggling to accept a loved one who have come to terms with their homosexuality. They just need to understand what their loved ones are going through.
What do I want to achieve in this project? There is so many things I want for this project but I’m only one person and I’m on a limited time schedule to complete this so I’ve narrowed it down to the more important things; the things that people need most.
Understanding, Acceptance and a little help and guidance. Whether it is the one coming out or the family member; giving them the information they need and the advice they need to help them through the transition, this website can give them the understanding they need. It can also help them with accepting themselves throughout their own transition or helping the mother that needs help to accept their child again. Even if they are not quite ready to come out, they can have the help and guidance they need to help them until they are ready.
My campaign will consist of four main focus points. A website, videos, posters, and informative booklets
The website will consist of a social network that young homosexuals can talk freely about their coming out process, or if they just need to chat about their homosexuality they can get the professional advice that the need. Maybe they just need to talk to someone who may understand what they are going through. They will also be able to talk to others that are going through the same situation they may have been through and give someone else the help they need.
The videos will be interviews of young homosexuals that have struggled or still struggling with being open about their homosexuality. I will also interview a few friends and family members that will be able to tell us how they handled difficult situations with the news about their loved ones.
The posters will be of the same people I use in the interviews. By using their presence and a quote from them selves it will help with advertising their interviews and the website. This is where I want to introduce guerilla marketing as a means of fast and cheap advertisement
The informative booklets are little pockets of advice. I want to simplify all the complicated information, put it in one places and make it easy to understand. They will be able to buy them on Amazon or on the website. I’m hoping that eventually, they will become booklets that the local GP will be able to give out to their patients.
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED
The design problem at the moment is to design a website that is unique, informative and reaches out to those who are scared and confused about their sexuality. There is so many different informational sites about homosexuality. There are loads of LGBT poster campaigns about equality, gay marriage etc but there are none or very little that I have found, about young people coming out. So this is where I am starting at. I have to design a strong campaign promoting homosexuality. My problem is finding a strong idea that ties the website, videos, posters and informational booklets together. I have to make it strong enough to make an impact.
The general problem at the moment is that there isn’t a stable website that is providing what I want to provide. There isn’t a positive campaign letting everyone know that homosexuality is normal. I have been one of the people googling questions about my sexuality. I have struggled to find the answers too. All the information that people are needing is there but they have to look everywhere for the answers. Its in ten different places and I want to get all that information and bring it to one place. Young people at the moment don’t feel like they can be comfortable with their homosexuality because there is so much conflict against it. I want to try to let them know that it is okay for them to be who they want to be. Also for the family and friends to know that their loved one is still the same person.
USERS/CUSTOMERS
My users and customers are the critical factor I need to make my project work. So I have tried answering some simple questions to get to know them better and understand what I need to accomplish this project. First, how many users are there? I have only been able to estimate this answer. 10% of the world population is a part of the LGBT community, but not everyone in this community will need the use of my website. Though this website is not only for the people of the LGBT community. Friends and family will be able use this website. It can help them answer questions they have and find a little understanding for their loved ones. Even the people that would like to learn a little more about the culture can use this website.
What age are my customers? This is another hard question, I have read so many stories of young people coming out and so many other stories of much older people who are married and have families coming out. I have estimated the age group to use my website would be 11 years to 35 years. It is a very wide age group for me to focus on but I have narrowed now the ages that I will be aiming my website for because it seem to be the most common. Back in the 90’s people were coming out between 19-23 but now they are coming out even younger, some as young as 15 and 16. I’m going to focus my age group between 18 – 26 because that is the age group I am in and most of my LGBT friends are in.
What other products do they use/read/view? At this moment there is too many to count. Social networks, helplines, Community Groups, LGBT Safe areas between the 1000s of websites out there at the moment giving a little bit of information at a time, and the very common magazines like ‘Gay Times’ and ‘Out’ that have been about for years. Though they have been helpful to some people they don’t seem to answer the important questions and the helpful information. This is what I want to correct. I want to bring all that important information to the one place. To make it easy to access and understand. I want to give the users the answers they are looking for, and create a community online that will help members feel safer.
How did my users manage before my idea? This is a hard question, I’m not quite sure how to answer. I only managed to understand my own bisexuality with the common knowledge I already knew from my friends that had came out before me. I had their help throughout my transition. I will only be able to get the answer to this question when I am able to ask people of the LGBT community.
What are they interested in? What are they trying to achieve? Again these questions I can only answer for myself. I just wanted to understand my sexuality a little more. I always knew I was a little more out going than most and I was feeling a little off. When I realized I was bisexual, it was if a weight was lifted off my shoulders and I felt a lot more relaxed and free. I just wanted to be accepted, and I felt that acceptance when I told one of my friends for the first time. It was their advice and understanding that helped me.
How many times per day will the user use the object? As I plan to have a Social Network working off the website, it will be used for more than research. It will be used for people making friends going through the same situation they are. It can be used for the parents and friends to ask questions for more understanding. It can be used on the go with the smart phone application also. It could become the next version of Facebook or Twitter, and be used many times a day, every day.
Are the users different from the customers? Well, yes and no. Considering the customers are the ones paying for the campaign, but they can also be my users. I don’t know every homosexual, so for all I know one of my customers could have a child or a friend that is homosexual, or they themselves could be. My users could also be my customers. The users can donate or volunteer towards the campaign.
A customer is someone who gives you money for something. This is correct. So how am I going to get funding for this idea? So far most LGBT organizations are just that. Organizations and Charities. They get some of little funding from Government organizations like United Nations. The rest of their funding comes from fundraising, donations, guerilla marketing and volunteering.
How much will your customer give you for solving this design problem? I estimated that this campaign would cost about £10 – 15,000 if it was just posted up and advertised like a normal funded campaign. Why should this campaign be a normal campaign and only advertised for a slotted amount of time? This is why I looked in to the guerilla marketing idea. Flash mobs, Graffiti, Sticker Bombing, Flyers, Social Networks, You Tube etc, This I think would be a more effective way of advertising this kind of subject, plus people like seeing the passion behind the ideas. It gives the campaign an edge.
Who else could solve the problem? Anyone could solve this problem. Though it needs everyone to take part to make a change, for the problem to be solved. What will the customer get in return for his or her investment? They get the opportunity to be apart of a new era. The LGBT community is slowly changing and becoming bigger and more common, eventually it will be come a normal thing world wide.
TECHNOLOGY/MEDIA/MANUFACTURE
What are the technical options for making and delivering my design? I am using two main methods to make and deliver my idea; print and web. Both are very strong methods for communicating with. An even stronger approach is video advertising. People respond to the face of a personal story on and poster but they connect more with a voice to a personal story. So I will be using all three methods for this campaign.
Which option will make the most money? Which option will cost the most to make and deliver? The posters wont make much money they are for getting the message across and raising awareness about the problem and advertising the website. They will cost me the most to produce. Through some research I was able to get 250 posters for £150. This is not very cheap, the informational booklets were woking out at about the same price. The website will make me the most money as I plan to have a column on the side for companies advertising. If I was to do the videos in a full professional standard then they would cost me a lot more than I could afford. Though I am bringing these videos in on the idea of guerilla marketing side of advertising my campaign. I plan on doing these myself with a hand held camera and the help of a few friends. The people I plan interviewing will be on a volunteering basis as I’m not able to force to talk about such a sensitive subject.
What technology/media/manufacture does the competitor or alternative use? They use all the same methods and techniques that I use. Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash, Final Cut Pro. The other organizations use posters for advertising, They have a website for their organization and some have a few advertising videos to run along side also. They only seem to have the right information for what they are trying to fix. Their ideas are great and they are all targeting really important problems of the LGBT community that need to be sorted out, but I haven’t come across one that is helping the people I’m trying to help. The information that these people need is in 10 different organizations and 100 different places so I’m taking all that and putting it in one place.
TIME/PLACE
Where will my design entity be used? Everywhere necessary. At the moment there is very little pro gay campaigns on our t.v.’s or on the streets we walk. I’m going to start there. With just the normal advertising areas like bus stops, work places, billboards, etc. I also want to get in to the schools and universities because they are some of the people coming out and some of the people that need help. This will help with the guerilla marketing comes around, Flash mob in the town centers, Sticker bombing on sign posts, bins, back alleyways, shopping complexes. Students will be able to help with this in their own towns. I will be using viral messaging on the mobile phones and social networking also. There is so many ways to advertise these days I know I can advertise my website well.
At what time? For how long? Well, thats the question. It only takes a few seconds before someone loses interest in a poster. So I will have to grab their attention for long enough to get the message across. This rule applies for the website also, one click and they are gone. The guerilla marketing is slightly different, because of the place it is being advertised it makes people look that little bit longer. Though the message still needs to be quick enough for them to grab. With guerilla marketing there is not an allotted time for the advertisement to be there. So it could probably be there for a year or longer. Whereas for billboards and T.V.’s there is only an allotted amount of time that the advertisement will be on display, so if it doesn’t make an impact than it is pointless. This is why the guerilla marketing idea works, I can have it being advertising as a big normal advertisement and when that is done I can still have the in being advertised by getting it out there if front of the people as they walk home or are out for the day. The best way to get message out there is by putting it in front of the people.
So to conclude I am Joanne Maguire, I am Bisexual and I am who I am. This project is for those who are scared. For those who need a little help, for those who need a little understanding. For those who need a little acceptance. For those who need a little guidance. This is what I am giving to you. A campaign/website just for you, to let you know you are not alone. A place you can come and talk to professionals, and people who understand what you are going through. A place to help you find yourself and to give you the answers, to the questions you have. A safe environment.
Homosexual behavior in animals
Homosexual behavior in animals refers to the documented evidence of homosexual and bisexual behavior in non-human species. Such behaviors include sex, courtship, affection, pair bonding, and parenting among same sex animals. A 1999 review by researcher Bruce Bagemihl shows that homosexual behavior has been observed in close to 1,500 species, ranging from primates to gut worms, and is well documented for 500 of them.[1][2] Animal sexual behavior takes many different forms, even within the same species. The motivations for and implications of these behaviors have yet to be fully understood, since most species have yet to be fully studied.[3] According to Bagemihl, “the animal kingdom [does] it with much greater sexual diversity — including homosexual, bisexual and nonreproductive sex — than the scientific community and society at large have previously been willing to accept.”[4] Current research indicates that various forms of same-sex sexual behavior are found throughout the animal kingdom.[5] A new review made in 2009 of existing research showed that same-sex behavior is a nearly universal phenomenon in the animal kingdom, common across species.[6] Homosexual behavior is best known from social species. According to geneticist Simon Levay in 1996, “Although homosexual behavior is very common in the animal world, it seems to be very uncommon that individual animals have a long-lasting predisposition to engage in such behavior to the exclusion of heterosexual activities. Thus, a homosexual orientation, if one can speak of such thing in animals, seems to be a rarity.[7] One species in which exclusive homosexual orientation occurs, however, is that of domesticated sheep (Ovis aries).[8][9] “About 10% of rams (males) refuse to mate with ewes (females) but do readily mate with other rams.”[9]
The observation of homosexual behavior in animals can be seen as both an argument for and against the acceptance of homosexuality in humans, and has been used especially against the claim that it is a peccatum contra naturam (‘sin against nature’).[1] For instance, homosexuality in animals was cited in the United States Supreme Court‘s decision in Lawrence v. Texas which struck down the sodomy laws of 14 states.[10] Whether animal sexuality has logical, ethical, or moral implications in human sexuality is also a source of debate (see appeal to nature).[11][12][13]
Applying the term “homosexual” to animals
The term homosexual was coined by Karl-Maria Kertbeny in 1868 to describe same-sex sexual attraction and sexual behavior in humans.[14] Its use in animal studies has been controversial for two main reasons: animal sexuality and motivating factors have been and remain poorly understood, and the term has strong cultural implications in western society that are irrelevant for species other than humans.[15] Thus homosexual behavior has been given a number of terms over the years. When describing animals, the term “homosexual” is preferred over “gay”, “lesbian” and other terms currently in use, as these are seen as even more bound to human homosexuality.[16]
Animal preference and motivation is always inferred from behavior. In wild animals, researchers will as a rule not be able to map the entire life of an individual, and must infer from frequency of single observations of behavior. The correct usage of the term homosexual is that an animal exhibits homosexual behavior or even same-sex sexual behavior; however, this article conforms to the usage by modern research[16][17][18][19][20] applying the term homosexuality to all sexual behavior (copulation, genital stimulation, mating games and sexual display behavior) between animals of the same sex. In most instances, it is presumed that the homosexual behavior is but part of the animal’s overall sexual behavioral repertoire, making the animal “bisexual” rather than “homosexual” as the terms are commonly understood in humans,[19] but cases of homosexual preference and exclusive homosexual pairs are known.[21]
Research on homosexual behavior in animals
The presence of same-sex sexual behavior was not ‘officially’ observed on a large scale until recent times, possibly due to observer bias caused by social attitudes to same-sex sexual behavior,[22] innocent confusion, or even from a fear of “being ridiculed by their colleagues.”[23] Georgetown University biologist Janet Mann states “Scientists who study the topic are often accused of trying to forward an agenda, and their work can come under greater scrutiny than that of their colleagues who study other topics.”[24] They also noted “Not every sexual act has a reproductive function … that’s true of humans and non-humans.”[24] It appears to be widespread amongst social birds and mammals, particularly the sea mammals and the primates. The true extent of homosexuality in animals is not known. While studies have demonstrated homosexual behavior in a number of species, Petter Bøckman, the scientific advisor of the exhibition Against Nature? in 2007, speculated that the true extent of the phenomenon may be much larger than was then recognized:
No species has been found in which homosexual behaviour has not been shown to exist, with the exception of species that never have sex at all, such as sea urchins and aphis. Moreover, a part of the animal kingdom is hermaphroditic, truly bisexual. For them, homosexuality is not an issue.[23]
An example of overlooking homosexual behavior is noted by Bruce Bagemihl describing mating giraffes where nine out of ten pairings occur between males.
Every male that sniffed a female was reported as sex, while anal intercourse with orgasm between males was only “revolving around” dominance, competition or greetings.[25]
Some researchers believe this behavior to have its origin in male social organization and social dominance, similar to the dominance traits shown in prison sexuality. Others, particularly Joan Roughgarden, Bruce Bagemihl, Thierry Lodé[26] and Paul Vasey suggest the social function of sex (both homosexual and heterosexual) is not necessarily connected to dominance, but serves to strengthen alliances and social ties within a flock. Others have argued that social organization theory is inadequate because it cannot account for some homosexual behaviors, for example, penguin species where same-sex individuals mate for life and refuse to pair with females when given the chance.[27][28] While reports on many such mating scenarios are still only anecdotal, a growing body of scientific work confirms that permanent homosexuality occurs not only in species with permanent pair bonds,[20] but also in non-monogamous species like sheep.
One report on sheep cited below states:
Approximately 8% of rams exhibit sexual preferences [that is, even when given a choice] for male partners (male-oriented rams) in contrast to most rams, which prefer female partners (female-oriented rams). We identified a cell group within the medial preoptic area/anterior hypothalamus of age-matched adult sheep that was significantly larger in adult rams than in ewes…[29]
In fact, apparent homosexual individuals are known from all of the traditional domestic species, from sheep, cattle and horses to cats, dogs and budgerigars.[1]
Genetic and physiological basis for homosexual animal behavior
Researchers found that disabling the (fucose mutarotase) FucM gene in laboratory mice – which influences the levels of estrogen to which the brain is exposed – caused the female mice to behave as if they were male as they grew up. “The mutant female mouse underwent a slightly altered developmental programme in the brain to resemble the male brain in terms of sexual preference” said Professor Chankyu Park of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejon, South Korea, who led the research. His most recent findings have been published in the BMC Genetics journal on July 7, 2010.[30][31]
In March 2011, research shows that serotonin is involved in the mechanism of sexual orientation of mice.[32][33]
Some selected species and groups
See also: List of animals displaying homosexual behavior
See also: Seabird Same-sex pairing
Black swans
Black Swans, Cygnus atratus
An estimated one-quarter of all black swans pairings are homosexual and they steal nests, or form temporary threesomes with females to obtain eggs, driving away the female after she lays the eggs.[34][35] More of their cygnets survive to adulthood than those of different-sex pairs, possibly due to their superior ability to defend large portions of land. The same reasoning has been applied to male flamingo pairs raising chicks.[36][37]
Gulls
Studies have shown that 10 to 15 percent of female western gulls in some populations in the wild exhibit homosexual behavior.[38]
Ibises
Research has shown that the environmental pollutant methylmercury can increase the prevalence of homosexual behavior in male American White Ibis. The study involved exposing chicks in varying dosages to the chemical and measuring the degree of homosexual behavior in adulthood. The results discovered was that as the dosage was increased the likelihood of homosexual behavior also increased. The endocrine blocking feature of mercury has been suggested as a possible cause of sexual disruption in other bird species.[39][40]
Mallards
Mallards form male-female pairs only until the female lays eggs, at which time the male leaves the female. Mallards have rates of male-male sexual activity that are unusually high for birds, in some cases, as high as 19% of all pairs in a population.[41]
Penguins
In early February 2004 the New York Times reported that a male pair of chinstrap penguins in the Central Park Zoo in New York City had successfully hatched and fostered a female chick from a fertile egg they had been given to incubate.[10] Other penguins in New York zoos have also been reported to have formed same-sex pairs.[42][43]
Zoos in Japan and Germany have also documented homosexual male penguin couples.[27][28] The couples have been shown to build nests together and use a stone as a substitute for an egg. Researchers at Rikkyo University in Tokyo found 20 homosexual pairs at 16 major aquariums and zoos in Japan.
Bremerhaven Zoo in Germany attempted to encourage reproduction of endangered Humbolt penguins by importing females from Sweden and separating three male pairs, but this was unsuccessful. The zoo’s director said that the relationships were “too strong” between the homosexual pairs.[44] German gay groups protested at this attempt to break up the male-male pairs[45] but the zoo’s director was reported as saying “We don’t know whether the three male pairs are really homosexual or whether they have just bonded because of a shortage of females… nobody here wants to forcibly separate homosexual couples.”[46]
A pair of male Magellanic penguins who had shared a burrow for six years at the San Francisco Zoo and raised a surrogate chick, split when the male of a pair in the next burrow died and the female sought a new mate.[47]
Vultures
In 1998 two male Griffon vultures named Dashik and Yehuda, at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, engaged in “open and energetic sex” and built a nest. The keepers provided the couple with an artificial egg, which the two parents took turns incubating; and 45 days later, the zoo replaced the egg with a baby vulture. The two male vultures raised the chick together.[48] A few years later, however, Yehuda became interested in a female vulture that was brought into the aviary. Dashik became depressed, and was eventually moved to the zoological research garden at Tel Aviv University where he too set up a nest with a female vulture.[49]
Two homosexual male vultures at the Allwetter Zoo in Muenster built a nest together, although they were picked on and often had their nest materials stolen by other vultures. They were eventually separated to try and promote breeding by placing one of them with female vultures, despite the protests of German homosexual groups.[50]
Pigeons
Both male and female pigeons sometimes exhibit homosexual behavior. As well as sexual behavior same-sex pigeon pairs will build nests, and hens will lay (infertile) eggs and attempt to incubate them.
Some pigeons also display fetish behavior and attempt to mate with specific inanimate objects.[citation needed]
Mammals
Amazon Dolphin
The Amazon River dolphin or boto has been reported to form up in bands of 3–5 individuals enjoying group sex.[51] The groups usually comprise young males and sometimes one or two females. Sex is often performed in non-reproductive ways, using snout, flippers and genital rubbing, without regards to gender.[51] In captivity, they have been observed to sometimes perform homosexual and heterosexual penetration of the blowhole, a hole homologous with the nostril of other mammals, making this the only known example of nasal sex in the animal kingdom.[52][51] The males will sometimes also perform sex with tucuxi males, a small porpoise.[51]
American Bison
The American Bison is a bovine mammal which commonly displays homosexual behavior.
Courtship, mounting, and full anal penetration between bulls has been noted to occur among American Bison. The Mandan nation Okipa festival concludes with a ceremonial enactment of this behavior, to “ensure the return of the buffalo in the coming season.”[53] Also, mounting of one female by another is common among cattle.
Bonobo and other apes
Bonobo
The Bonobo, which has a matriarchal society, unusual amongst apes, is a fully bisexual species—both males and females engage in heterosexual and homosexual behavior, being noted for female-female homosexuality in particular. About 60% of all sexual activity in this species is between two or more females. While the homosexual bonding system in Bonobos represents the highest frequency of homosexuality known in any species, homosexuality has been reported for all great apes (a group which includes humans), as well as a number of other primate species.[54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62] Dutch primatologist Frans de Waal on observing and filming bonobos noted that there were two reasons to believe sexual activity is the bonobo’s answer to avoiding conflict.
Anything that arouses the interest of more than one bonobo at a time, not just food, tends to result in sexual contact. If two bonobos approach a cardboard box thrown into their enclosure, they will briefly mount each other before playing with the box. Such situations lead to squabbles in most other species. But bonobos are quite tolerant, perhaps because they use sex to divert attention and to defuse tension.
Bonobo sex often occurs in aggressive contexts totally unrelated to food. A jealous male might chase another away from a female, after which the two males reunite and engage in scrotal rubbing. Or after a female hits a juvenile, the latter’s mother may lunge at the aggressor, an action that is immediately followed by genital rubbing between the two adults.
Bottlenose dolphins
Dolphins of several species engage in homosexual acts, though it is best studied in the bottlenose dolphins.[1] Sexual encounters between females take the shape of “beak-genital propulsion”, where one female insert her beak in the genital opening of the other while swimming gently forward.[64] Between males, homosexual behaviour include rubbing of genitals against each other, which sometimes lead to the males swimming belly to belly, inserting the penis in the others genital slit and sometimes anus.[65]
Janet Mann, Georgetown University professor of biology and psychology, argues that the strong personal behavior among male dolphin calves is about bond formation and benefits the species in an evolutionary context.[38] She cites studies showing that these dolphins later in life as adults are in a sense bisexual, and the male bonds forged earlier in life work together for protection as well as locating females to reproduce with. Confrontations between flocks of bottlenose dolphins and the related species Atlantic spotted dolphin will sometimes lead to cross-species homosexual behaviour between the males rather than combat.[66]
Elephants
African and Asian males will engage in same-sex bonding and mounting. Such encounters are often associated with affectionate interactions, such as kissing, trunk intertwining, and placing trunks in each other’s mouths. Male elephants, who often live apart from the general herd, often form “companionships”, consisting of an older individual and one or sometimes two younger, attendant males with sexual behavior being an important part of the social dynamic. Unlike heterosexual relations, which are always of a fleeting nature, the relationships between males may last for years. The encounters are analogous to heterosexual bouts, one male often extending his trunk along the other’s back and pushing forward with his tusks to signify his intention to mount. Same-sex relations are common and frequent in both sexes, with Asiatic elephants in captivity devoting roughly 45% of sexual encounters to same-sex activity.[67]
Giraffes
Male giraffes have been observed to engage in remarkably high frequencies of homosexual behavior. After aggressive “necking”, it is common for two male giraffes to caress and court each other, leading up to mounting and climax. Such interactions between males have been found to be more frequent than heterosexual coupling.[68] In one study, up to 94% of observed mounting incidents took place between two males. The proportion of same sex activities varied between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males were engaged in non-combative necking behavior with another male. Only 1% of same-sex mounting incidents occurred between females.
Humans
Monkeys
Among monkeys, Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox conducted a study on how Depo-Provera contraceptives lead to decreased male attractiveness to females and eventually to male homosexuality.[70] Janet E. Smith summarizes the findings as follows:
[The] study in the early 70s […] involved a tribe of monkeys. The alpha monkey of this tribe, named Austin, chose three female monkeys to be his exclusive sexual partners. Austin had a grand time with these three female monkeys. Then the researchers injected Austin’s three females with the contraceptive Depo-Provera. Austin stopped having sex with them and chose other female monkeys to be his sexual partners. Then they contracepted all of the females in the tribe. The males stopped have sex with the females and started behaving in a turbulent and confused manner.[71]
Japanese macaque
With the Japanese macaque, also known as the “snow monkey“, same-sex relations are frequent, though rates vary between troops. Females will form “consortships” characterized by affectionate social and sexual activities. In some troops up to one quarter of the females form such bonds, which vary in duration from a few days to a few weeks. Often, strong and lasting friendships result from such pairings. Males also have same-sex relations, typically with multiple partners of the same age. Affectionate and playful activities are associated with such relations.
Lions
Both male and female lions have been seen to interact homosexually.[73][74] Male lions pair-bond for a number of days and initiate homosexual activity with affectionate nuzzling and caressing, leading to mounting and thrusting. About 8% of mountings have been observed to occur with other males. Pairings between females are held to be fairly common in captivity but have not been observed in the wild.
Polecat
European polecats Mustela putorius were found to engage homosexually with non-sibling animals. Exclusive homosexuality with mounting and anal penetration in this solitary species serves no apparent adaptive function.[75]
Sheep
The reason why Ovis aries has attracted so much attention is that some rams seem to have an exclusive homosexual orientation.[76]
An October 2003 study by Dr. Charles E. Roselli et al. (Oregon Health and Science University) states that homosexuality in male sheep (found in 8% of rams) is associated with a region in the rams’ brains which the authors call the “ovine Sexually Dimorphic Nucleus” (oSDN) which is half the size of the corresponding region in heterosexual male sheep.[29]
Scientists found that, “The oSDN in rams that preferred females was significantly larger and contained more neurons than in male-oriented rams and ewes. In addition, the oSDN of the female-oriented rams expressed higher levels of aromatase, a substance that converts testosterone to estradiol, a form of estrogen which is believed to facilitate typical male sexual behaviors. Aromatase expression was no different between male-oriented rams and ewes.”
“The dense cluster of neurons that comprise the oSDN express cytochrome P450 aromatase. Aromatase mRNA levels in the oSDN were significantly greater in female-oriented rams than in ewes, whereas male-oriented rams exhibited intermediate levels of expression.” These results suggest that “…naturally occurring variations in sexual partner preferences may be related to differences in brain anatomy and its capacity for estrogen synthesis.”[29] As noted prior, given the potential unagressiveness of the male population in question, the differing aromatase levels may also have been evidence of aggression levels, not sexuality. It should also be noted that the results of this study have not been confirmed by other studies.
The Merck Manual of Veterinary Medicine appears to consider homosexuality among sheep as a routine occurrence and an issue to be dealt with as a problem of animal husbandry.[77]
Spotted Hyena
The Spotted Hyena is a moderately large, terrestrial carnivore native to Africa.
The family structure of the Spotted Hyena is matriarchal, and dominance relationships with strong sexual elements are routinely observed between related females. Due largely to the female spotted hyena‘s unique urogenital system, which looks more like a penis rather than a vagina, early naturalists thought hyenas were hermaphroditic males who commonly practiced homosexuality.[78] Early writings such as Ovid‘s Metamorphoses and the Physiologus suggested that the hyena continually changed its sex and nature from male to female and back again. In Paedagogus, Clement of Alexandria noted that the hyena (along with the hare) was “quite obsessed with sexual intercourse.” Many Europeans associated the hyena with sexual deformity, prostitution, deviant sexual behavior, and even witchcraft.
The reality behind the confusing reports is the sexually aggressive behavior between the females, including mounting between females. Research has shown that “in contrast to most other female mammals, female Crocuta are male-like in appearance, larger than males, and substantially more aggressive,”[79] and they have “been masculinized without being defeminized.”[78]
Study of this unique genitalia and aggressive behavior in the female hyena has led to the understanding that more aggressive females are better able to compete for resources, including food and mating partners.[78][80] Research has shown that “elevated levels of testosterone in utero“[81] contribute to extra aggressiveness; both males and females mount members of the same sex,[81][82] who in turn are possibly acting more submissive because of lower levels of testosterone in utero.[79]
Others
Lizards
Whiptail lizard (Teiidae genus) females have the ability to reproduce through parthenogenesis and as such males are rare and sexual breeding non-standard.[83] Females engage in sexual behavior to stimulate ovulation, with their behavior following their hormonal cycles; during low levels of estrogen, these (female) lizards engage in “masculine” sexual roles. Those animals with currently high estrogen levels assume “feminine” sexual roles.
Lizards that perform the courtship ritual have greater fertility than those kept in isolation due to an increase in hormones triggered by the sexual behaviors. So, even though asexual whiptail lizards populations lack males, sexual stimuli still increase reproductive success.
From an evolutionary standpoint, these females are passing their full genetic code to all of their offspring (rather than the 50% of genes that would be passed in sexual reproduction). Certain species of gecko also reproduce by parthenogenesis.[84]
Dragonflies
The head of Darner Dragonfly (Basiaeschna janata).
Male homosexuality has been inferred in several species of dragonflies (the order Odonata). The cloacal pinchers of male damselflies and dragonflies inflict characteristic head damage to females during sex. A survey of 11 species of damsel and dragonflies[85][86] has revealed such mating damages in 20 to 80 % of the males too, indicating a fairly high occurrence of sexual coupling between males.
Fruit flies
Male Drosophila melanogaster flies bearing two copies of a mutant allele in the fruitless gene court and attempt to mate exclusively with other males.[21] The genetic basis of animal homosexuality has been studied in the fly Drosophila melanogaster.[87] Here, multiple genes have been identified that can cause homosexual courtship and mating.[88] These genes are thought to control behavior through pheromones as well as altering the structure of the animal’s brains.[89][90] These studies have also investigated the influence of environment on the likelihood of flies displaying homosexual behavior.
Bed bugs
Male bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) are sexually attracted to any newly fed individual and this results in homosexual mounting. This occurs in heterosexual mounting by the traumatic insemination in which the male pierces the female abdomen with his needle-like penis. In homosexual mating this risks abdominal injuries as males lack the female counteradaptive spermalege structure. Males produce alarm pheromones to reduce such homosexual matings.[93]
reff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_behavior_in_animals
The Users Presentation
This is the Users presentation I done to help me answer some important questions about my project.
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic and/or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to “an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions” primarily or exclusively to people of the same sex; “it also refers to an individual’s sense of personal and social identity based on those attractions, behaviors expressing them, and membership in a community of others who share them.”
Homosexuality is one of the three main categories of sexual orientation, along with bisexuality and heterosexuality, within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum (with asexuality sometimes considered the fourth). The consensus of the behavioral and social sciences as well as the health and mental health professions is that homosexuality is a normal human sexual orientation. It is not a mental disorder, and is not in itself a source of negative psychological effects. Prejudice against homosexual and bisexual people, by contrast, has been shown to have such effects. In spite of this, some religious sects and “ex-gay” organizations hold the view that homosexual activity is a sinful or dysfunctional behavior. Contrary to mainstream scientific understanding, some of these sects and organizations characterize it as a “choice”.
The most common terms for homosexual people are lesbian for women and gay for men, though gay is also used to refer generally to homosexual men and women. The number of people who identify as gay or lesbian—and the proportion of people who have same-sex sexual experiences—are difficult for researchers to estimate reliably for a variety of reasons. In the modern West, according to major studies, 2% to 13% of the population is homosexual or has had some form of same-sex sexual contact within his or her lifetime. A 2006 study suggested that 20% of the population anonymously reported some homosexual feelings, although relatively few participants in the study identified themselves as homosexual. Homosexual behavior is also widely observed in animals.
Many gay and lesbian people are in committed same-sex relationships, though only recently have census forms and political conditions facilitated their visibility and enumeration. These relationships are equivalent to heterosexual relationships in essential psychological respects. Homosexual relationships and acts have been admired, as well as condemned, throughout recorded history, depending on the form they took and the culture in which they occurred. Since the end of the 19th century, there has been a movement towards increased visibility, recognition and legal rights for homosexual people, including the rights to marriage and civil unions, adoption and parenting, employment, military service, and equal access to health care.
Etymology
Zephyrus and Hyacinthus Attic red-figure cup from Tarquinia, 480 BC (Boston Museum of Fine Arts)
The word homosexual is a Greek and Latin hybrid with the first element derived from Greek ὁμός homos, ‘same’ (not related to the Latin homo, ‘man’, as in Homo sapiens), thus connoting sexual acts and affections between members of the same sex, including lesbianism. Gay generally refers to male homosexuality, but may be used in a broader sense to refer to all LGBT people. In the context of sexuality, lesbian refers only to female homosexuality. The word “lesbian” is derived from the name of the Greek island Lesbos, where the poet Sappho wrote largely about her emotional relationships with young women.
Many modern style guides in the U.S. recommend against using homosexual as a noun, instead using gay man or lesbian. Similarly, some recommend completely avoiding usage of homosexual as it has a negative, clinical history and because the word only refers to one’s sexual behavior (as opposed to romantic feelings) and thus it has a negative connotation. Gay and lesbian are the most common alternatives. The first letters are frequently combined to create the initialism LGBT (sometimes written as GLBT), in which B and T refer to bisexual and transgender people.
The first known appearance of homosexual in print is found in an 1869 German pamphlet by the Austrian-born novelist Karl-Maria Kertbeny, published anonymously, arguing against a Prussian anti-sodomy law. In 1879, Gustav Jager used Kertbeny’s terms in his book, Discovery of the Soul (1880). In 1886, Richard von Krafft-Ebing used the terms homosexual and heterosexual in his book Psychopathia Sexualis, probably borrowing them from Jager. Krafft-Ebing’s book was so popular among both layman and doctors that the terms “heterosexual” and “homosexual” became the most widely accepted terms for sexual orientation.
As such, the current use of the term has its roots in the broader 19th-century tradition of personality taxonomy.
Although early writers also used the adjective homosexual to refer to any single-sex context (such as an all-girls’ school), today the term is used exclusively in reference to sexual attraction, activity, and orientation. The term homosocial is now used to describe single-sex contexts that are not specifically sexual. There is also a word referring to same-sex love, homophilia.
Synonyms
Some synonyms include men who have sex with men or MSM (used in the medical community when specifically discussing sexual activity), homoerotic (referring to works of art), heteroflexible (referring to a person who identifies as heterosexual, but occasionally engages in same-sex sexual activities), and metrosexual (referring to a non-gay man with stereotypically gay tastes in food, fashion, and design). Pejorative terms in English include queer, faggot, fairy, poof, and homo. Beginning in the 1990s, some of these have been reclaimed as positive words by gay men and lesbians, as in the usage of queer studies, queer theory, and even the popular American television program Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The word homo occurs in many other languages without the pejorative connotations it has in English. As with ethnic slurs and racial slurs, however, the misuse of these terms can still be highly offensive; the range of acceptable use depends on the context and speaker. Conversely, gay, a word originally embraced by homosexual men and women as a positive, affirmative term (as in gay liberation and gay rights), has come into widespread pejorative use among young people.
Sexuality and gender identity
Sexual orientation, identity, behavior
Main articles: Sexual orientation, Sexual orientation identity, and Sexual behaviour
See also: Situational sexual behavior
The American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers identify sexual orientation as “not merely a personal characteristic that can be defined in isolation. Rather, one’s sexual orientation defines the universe of persons with whom one is likely to find the satisfying and fulfilling relationships”:[2]
Sexual orientation is commonly discussed as a characteristic of the individual, like biological sex, gender identity, or age. This perspective is incomplete because sexual orientation is always defined in relational terms and necessarily involves relationships with other individuals. Sexual acts and romantic attractions are categorized as homosexual or heterosexual according to the biological sex of the individuals involved in them, relative to each other. Indeed, it is by acting—or desiring to act—with another person that individuals express their heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality. This includes actions as simple as holding hands with or kissing another person. Thus, sexual orientation is integrally linked to the intimate personal relationships that human beings form with others to meet their deeply felt needs for love, attachment, and intimacy. In addition to sexual behavior, these bonds encompass nonsexual physical affection between partners, shared goals and values, mutual support, and ongoing commitment.
Sexual identity development: “coming-out process”
Many people who feel attracted to members of their own sex have a so-called “coming out” at some point in their lives.Generally, coming out is described in three phases. The first phase is the phase of “knowing oneself”, and the realization emerges that one is open to same-sex relations. This is often described as an internal coming out. The second phase involves one’s decision to come out to others, e.g. family, friends, and/or colleagues. The third phase more generally involves living openly as an LGBT person. In the United States today, people often come out during high school or college age. At this age, they may not trust or ask for help from others, especially when their orientation is not accepted in society. Sometimes their own families are not even informed.
According to Rosario, Schrimshaw, Hunter, Braun (2006), “the development of a lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB) sexual identity is a complex and often difficult process. Unlike members of other minority groups (e.g., ethnic and racial minorities), most LGB individuals are not raised in a community of similar others from whom they learn about their identity and who reinforce and support that identity. Rather, LGB individuals are often raised in communities that are either ignorant of or openly hostile toward homosexuality.”
Outing is the practice of publicly revealing the sexual orientation of a closeted person. Notable politicians, celebrities, military service people, and clergy members have been outed, with motives ranging from malice to political or moral beliefs. Many commentators oppose the practice altogether, while some encourage outing public figures who use their positions of influence to harm other gay people.
Gender identity
The earliest writers on a homosexual orientation usually understood it to be intrinsically linked to the subject’s own sex. For example, it was thought that a typical female-bodied person who is attracted to female-bodied persons would have masculine attributes, and vice versa. This understanding was shared by most of the significant theorists of homosexuality from the mid-19th century to early 20th century, such as Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld, Havelock Ellis, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, as well as many gender variant homosexual people themselves. However, this understanding of homosexuality as sexual inversion was disputed at the time, and through the second half of the 20th century, gender identity came to be increasingly seen as a phenomenon distinct from sexual orientation.
Transgender and cisgender people may be attracted to men, women or both, although the prevalence of different sexual orientations is quite different in these two populations (see sexual orientation of transwomen). An individual homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual person may be masculine, feminine, or androgynous, and in addition, many members and supporters of lesbian and gay communities now see the “gender-conforming heterosexual” and the “gender-nonconforming homosexual” as negative stereotypes. However, studies by J. Michael Bailey and K.J. Zucker have found that a majority of gay men and lesbians report being gender-nonconforming during their childhood years. Richard C. Friedman, in Male Homosexuality published in 1990, writing from a psychoanalytic perspective, argues that sexual desire begins later than the writings of Sigmund Freud indicate, not in infancy but between the ages of 5 and 10 and is not focused on a parent figure but on peers. As a consequence, he reasons, homosexual men are not abnormal, never having been sexually attracted to their mothers anyway.
Social construct
Further information: Queer theory
Because a homosexual orientation is complex and multi-dimensional, some academics and researchers, especially in Queer studies, have argued that it is a historical and social construction. In 1976 the historian Michel Foucault argued that homosexuality as an identity did not exist in the 18th century; that people instead spoke of “sodomy”, which referred to sexual acts. Sodomy was a crime that was often ignored but sometimes punished severely (see sodomy law).
The term homosexual is often used in European and American cultures to encompass a person’s entire social identity, which includes self and personality. In Western cultures some people speak meaningfully of gay, lesbian, and bisexual identities and communities. In other cultures, homosexuality and heterosexual labels do not emphasize an entire social identity or indicate community affiliation based on sexual orientation. Some scholars, such as David Green, state that homosexuality is a modern Western social construct, and as such cannot be used in the context of non-Western male-male sexuality, nor in the pre-modern West.
Same-sex romance and relationships
Main article: Same-sex relationship
People with a homosexual orientation can express their sexuality in a variety of ways, and may or may not express it in their behaviors. Many have sexual relationships predominately with people of their own gender identity, though some have sexual relationships with those of the opposite gender, bisexual relationships, or none at all (celibate). Research indicates that many lesbians and gay men want, and succeed in having, committed and durable relationships. For example, survey data indicate that between 40% and 60% of gay men and between 45% and 80% of lesbians are currently involved in a romantic relationship. Survey data also indicate that between 18% and 28% of gay couples and between 8% and 21% of lesbian couples in the U.S. have lived together ten or more years. Studies have found same-sex and opposite-sex couples to be equivalent to each other in measures of satisfaction and commitment in romantic relationships, that age and gender are more reliable than sexual orientation as a predictor of satisfaction and commitment to a romantic relationship, and that people who are heterosexual or homosexual share comparable expectations and ideals with regard to romantic relationships.
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of sexual orientation
Reliable data as to the size of the gay and lesbian population are of value in informing public policy. For example, demographics would help in calculating the costs and benefits of domestic partnership benefits, of the impact of legalizing gay adoption, and of the impact of the U.S. military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. Further, knowledge of the size of the “gay and lesbian population holds promise for helping social scientists understand a wide array of important questions—questions about the general nature of labor market choices, accumulation of human capital, specialization within households, discrimination, and decisions about geographic location.”
Measuring the prevalence of homosexuality may present difficulties. The research must measure some characteristic that may or may not be defining of sexual orientation. The class of people with same-sex desires may be larger than the class of people who act on those desires, which in turn may be larger than the class of people who self-identify as gay/lesbian/bisexual.
In 1948 and 1953, Alfred Kinsey reported that nearly 46% of the male subjects had “reacted” sexually to persons of both sexes in the course of their adult lives, and 37% had had at least one homosexual experience. Kinsey’s methodology was criticized. A later study tried to eliminate the sample bias, but still reached similar conclusions.
Estimates of the occurrence of exclusive homosexuality range from one to twenty percent of the population, usually finding there are slightly more gay men than lesbians.
Estimates of the frequency of homosexual activity also vary from one country to another. A 1992 study reported that 6.1% of males in Britain had had a homosexual experience, while in France the number was 4.1%. According to a 2003 survey, 12% of Norwegians have had homosexual sex. In New Zealand, a 2006 study suggested that 20% of the population anonymously reported some homosexual feelings, few of them identifying as homosexual. Percentage of persons identifying homosexual was 2–3%. According to a 2008 poll, while only 6% of Britons define their sexual orientation as homosexual or bisexual, more than twice that number (13%) of Britons have had some form of sexual contact with someone of the same sex.
In the United States, according to exit polling on 2008 Election Day for the 2008 Presidential elections, 4% of electorate self-identified as gay, lesbian, or bisexual, the same percentage as in 2004.” According to the 2000 United States Census there were about 601,209 same-sex unmarried partner households.[65]
In the UK, the UK Office for National Statistics survey have come up with the figure that 1.5% are gay or bisexual, and suggest that this is in line with other surveys showing between 0.3% and 3%.
Psychology
Main article: Homosexuality and psychology
Psychology was one of the first disciplines to study a homosexual orientation as a discrete phenomenon. The first attempts to classify homosexuality as a disease were made by the fledgling European sexologist movement in the late 19th century. In 1886 noted sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing listed homosexuality along with 200 other case studies of deviant sexual practices in his definitive work, Psychopathia Sexualis. Krafft-Ebing proposed that homosexuality was caused by either “congenital [during birth] inversion” or an “acquired inversion”. In the last two decades of the 19th century, a different view began to predominate in medical and psychiatric circles, judging such behavior as indicative of a type of person with a defined and relatively stable sexual orientation. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, pathological models of homosexuality were standard.
The American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Association of Social Workers state:
| “ | In 1952, when the American Psychiatric Association published its first Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, homosexuality was included as a disorder. Almost immediately, however, that classification began to be subjected to critical scrutiny in research funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. That study and subsequent research consistently failed to produce any empirical or scientific basis for regarding homosexuality as a disorder or abnormality, rather than a normal and healthy sexual orientation. As results from such research accumulated, professionals in medicine, mental health, and the behavioral and social sciences reached the conclusion that it was inaccurate to classify homosexuality as a mental disorder and that the DSM classification reflected untested assumptions based on once-prevalent social norms and clinical impressions from unrepresentative samples comprising patients seeking therapy and individuals whose conduct brought them into the criminal justice system.In recognition of the scientific evidence, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the DSM in 1973, stating that “homosexuality per se implies no impairment in judgment, stability, reliability, or general social or vocational capabilities.” After thoroughly reviewing the scientific data, the American Psychological Association adopted the same position in 1975, and urged all mental health professionals “to take the lead in removing the stigma of mental illness that has long been associated with homosexual orientations.” The National Association of Social Workers has adopted a similar policy. |
Thus, mental health professionals and researchers have long recognized that being homosexual poses no inherent obstacle to leading a happy, healthy, and productive life, and that the vast majority of gay and lesbian people function well in the full array of social institutions and interpersonal relationships.”
The research and clinical literature demonstrate that same-sex sexual and romantic attractions, feelings, and behaviors are normal and positive variations of human sexuality. The longstanding consensus of the behavioral and social sciences and the health and mental health professions is that homosexuality per se is a normal and positive variation of human sexual orientation. There is now a large body of research evidence that indicates that being gay, lesbian or bisexual is compatible with normal mental health and social adjustment. The World Health Organization‘s ICD-9 (1977) listed homosexuality as a mental illness; it was removed from the ICD-10, endorsed by the Forty-third World Health Assembly on May 17, 1990. Like the DSM-II, the ICD-10 added ego-dystonic sexual orientation to the list, which refers to people who want to change their gender identities or sexual orientation because of a psychological or behavioral disorder (F66.1). The Chinese Society of Psychiatry removed homosexuality from its Chinese Classification of Mental Disorders in 2001 after five years of study by the association. According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists “This unfortunate history demonstrates how marginalisation of a group of people who have a particular personality feature (in this case homosexuality) can lead to harmful medical practice and a basis for discrimination in society. There is now a large body of research evidence that indicates that being gay, lesbian or bisexual is compatible with normal mental health and social adjustment. However, the experiences of discrimination in society and possible rejection by friends, families and others, such as employers, means that some LGB people experience a greater than expected prevalence of mental health difficulties and substance misuse problems. Although there have been claims by conservative political groups in the USA that this higher prevalence of mental health difficulties is confirmation that homosexuality is itself a mental disorder, there is no evidence whatever to substantiate such a claim.”
Most lesbian, gay, and bisexual people who seek psychotherapy do so for the same reasons as heterosexual people (stress, relationship difficulties, difficulty adjusting to social or work situations, etc.); their sexual orientation may be of primary, incidental, or no importance to their issues and treatment. Whatever the issue, there is a high risk for anti-gay bias in psychotherapy with lesbian, gay, and bisexual clients. Psychological research in this area has been relevant to counteracting prejudicial (“homophobic“) attitudes and actions, and to the LGBT rights movement generally.
The appropriate application of affirmative psychotherapy is based on the following scientific facts:
- Same-sex sexual attractions, behavior, and orientations per se are normal and positive variants of human sexuality; in other words, they are not indicators of mental or developmental disorders.
- Homosexuality and bisexuality are stigmatized, and this stigma can have a variety of negative consequences (e.g., minority stress) throughout the life span (D’Augelli & Patterson, 1995; DiPlacido, 1998; Herek & Garnets, 2007; Meyer, 1995, 2003).
- Same-sex sexual attractions and behavior can occur in the context of a variety of sexual orientations and sexual orientation identities (Diamond, 2006; Hoburg et al., 2004; Rust, 1996; Savin-Williams, 2005).
- Gay men, lesbians, and bisexual individuals can live satisfying lives as well as form stable, committed relationships and families that are equivalent to heterosexual relationships in essential respects (APA, 2005c; Kurdek, 2001, 2003, 2004; Peplau & Fingerhut, 2007).
- There are no empirical studies or peer-reviewed research that support theories attributing same-sex sexual orientation to family dysfunction or trauma (Bell et al., 1981; Bene, 1965; Freund & Blanchard, 1983; Freund & Pinkava, 1961; Hooker, 1969; McCord et al., 1962; D. K. Peters & Cantrell, 1991; Siegelman, 1974, 1981; Townes et al., 1976).
Etiology
Main articles: Biology and sexual orientation and Environment and sexual orientation
The American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and National Association of Social Workers stated in 2006:
| “ | Currently, there is no scientific consensus about the specific factors that cause an individual to become heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual—including possible biological, psychological, or social effects of the parents’ sexual orientation. However, the available evidence indicates that the vast majority of lesbian and gay adults were raised by heterosexual parents and the vast majority of children raised by lesbian and gay parents eventually grow up to be heterosexual. | ” |
The Royal College of Psychiatrists stated in 2007:
| “ | Despite almost a century of psychoanalytic and psychological speculation, there is no substantive evidence to support the suggestion that the nature of parenting or early childhood experiences play any role in the formation of a person’s fundamental heterosexual or homosexual orientation. It would appear that sexual orientation is biological in nature, determined by a complex interplay of genetic factors and the early uterine environment. Sexual orientation is therefore not a choice. | ” |
The American Academy of Pediatrics stated in Pediatrics in 2004:
| “ | Sexual orientation probably is not determined by any one factor but by a combination of genetic, hormonal, and environmental influences. In recent decades, biologically based theories have been favored by experts. Although there continues to be controversy and uncertainty as to the genesis of the variety of human sexual orientations, there is no scientific evidence that abnormal parenting, sexual abuse, or other adverse life events influence sexual orientation. Current knowledge suggests that sexual orientation is usually established during early childhood. | ” |
The American Psychological Association states “there are probably many reasons for a person’s sexual orientation and the reasons may be different for different people”, and says most people’s sexual orientation is determined at an early age. Research into how sexual orientation in males may be determined by genetic or other prenatal factors plays a role in political and social debates about homosexuality, and also raises fears about genetic profiling and prenatal testing.
Professor Michael King states: “The conclusion reached by scientists who have investigated the origins and stability of sexual orientation is that it is a human characteristic that is formed early in life, and is resistant to change. Scientific evidence on the origins of homosexuality is considered relevant to theological and social debate because it undermines suggestions that sexual orientation is a choice.”
Innate bisexuality (or predisposition to bisexuality) is a term introduced by Sigmund Freud, based on work by his associate Wilhelm Fliess, that expounds that all humans are born bisexual but through psychological development—which includes both external and internal factors—become monosexual, while the bisexuality remains in a latent state.
The authors of a 2008 study stated “there is considerable evidence that human sexual orientation is genetically influenced, so it is not known how homosexuality, which tends to lower reproductive success, is maintained in the population at a relatively high frequency”. They hypothesized that “while genes predisposing to homosexuality reduce homosexuals’ reproductive success, they may confer some advantage in heterosexuals who carry them”. Their results suggested that “genes predisposing to homosexuality may confer a mating advantage in heterosexuals, which could help explain the evolution and maintenance of homosexuality in the population”. A 2009 study also suggested a significant increase in fecundity in the females related to the homosexual people from the maternal line (but not in those related from the paternal one).
Garcia-Falgueras and Swaab state in the abstract of their 2010 study, “The fetal brain develops during the intrauterine period in the male direction through a direct action of testosterone on the developing nerve cells, or in the female direction through the absence of this hormone surge. In this way, our gender identity (the conviction of belonging to the male or female gender) and sexual orientation are programmed or organized into our brain structures when we are still in the womb. There is no indication that social environment after birth has an effect on gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Lesbian narratives and awareness of their sexual orientation
Lesbians often experience their sexuality differently from gay men, and have different understandings about etiology from those derived from studies focused mostly on men. For information specific to female homosexuality, see Lesbian.
In a U.S.-based 1970s mail survey by Shere Hite, lesbians self-reported their reasons for being lesbian. This is the only major piece of research into female sexuality that has looked at how women understand being homosexual since Kinsey in 1953. The research yielded information about women’s general understanding of lesbian relationships and their sexual orientation.
Women talked about social conditioning, which made it “almost impossible for me to have a truly healthy sexual relationship with a man”. Another woman stated that because of their conditioning “[w]omen are much more sensitive to other people’s needs”, and so “[s]ex is better with women physically and emotionally”, stating she preferred the symmetries of power and aesthetic between women. Some talked about preferring women, “[p]ersonally, I like girls better, they are more tender and loving”, and some went into how they found that emotional relationships with women were more satisfying than those with men, with women making more creative and versatile lovers. One woman reported it was easier for her “to give myself emotionally to a woman”. A woman who had been a lesbian for two years said she found that sexual relationships with women were more pleasurable on both psychological and physical levels than with men; this was “because the women I’ve had sex with have been my friends first, which was never the case with men. Being friends sets up a trust that I think is essential for satisfying physical intimacy. Relating to another woman physically seems to me like the most natural thing in the world. You’ve already got a head start on knowing how to give her pleasure. Gentleness seems to be the key, and is the main difference between relating to men and women.'” Women talked about women making better sexual partners and that was a dominant theme: “I find women better lovers; they know what a woman wants and most of all there is an emotional closeness that can never be matched with a man. More tenderness, more consideration and understanding of feelings, etc.” This was because men were perceived as unliberated “sexually or emotionally or any other way”, and lesbianism was perceived “as an alternative to abstinence” and to men generally. Men were perceived as usually juvenile, while a relationship with women was described as “more of a communion with self”. Sex as well as relationships with women were seen as a way of achieving independence from men; “[s]ex with a woman means independence from men.” Male sexual performance was another problem, “[t]wenty minutes for a man, at least an hour with a woman, usually more”, as well as attention to the sexual needs of women who themselves “seem to have a more sustained energy level after orgasm, and are more likely to know and do something about it if I’m not satisfied”. One understanding of the difference was that sex with women “is not an ‘exchange’ or a ‘trade’ or services”, and not focused on orgasm, with “more kissing and holding” and “more concern for my pleasure”, which was experienced as liberating. Sex with women was also seen as a political act; “I see lesbianism as putting all my energies (sexual, political social, etc.) into women. Sex is a form of comfort and to have sex indiscriminately with males is to give them comfort.”.
Hite is more concerned with what respondents say than quantifiable data. She found the two most significant differences between respondents’ experience with men and women were the focus on clitoral stimulation, and more emotional involvement and orgasmic responses. Since Hite carried out her study she has acknowledged that some women may have chosen the political identity of a lesbian. Julie Bindel, a UK journalist, reaffirmed that “political lesbianism continues to make intrinsic sense because it reinforces the idea that sexuality is a choice, and we are not destined to a particular fate because of our chromosomes.” as recently as 2009.
Sexual orientation change efforts
Main article: Sexual orientation change efforts
There are no studies of adequate scientific rigor to conclude whether recent sexual orientation change efforts do work to change a person’s sexual orientation. Those efforts has been controversial due to tensions between the values held by some faith-based organizations, on the one hand, and those held by lesbian, gay, and bisexual rights organizations and professional and scientific organizations, on the other. The longstanding consensus of the behavioral and social sciences and the health and mental health professions is that homosexuality per se is a normal and positive variation of human sexual orientation. The American Psychological Association says that “most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation”. Some individuals and groups have promoted the idea of homosexuality as symptomatic of developmental defects or spiritual and moral failings and have argued that sexual orientation change efforts, including psychotherapy and religious efforts, could alter homosexual feelings and behaviors. Many of these individuals and groups appeared to be embedded within the larger context of conservative religious political movements that have supported the stigmatization of homosexuality on political or religious grounds.
No major mental health professional organization has sanctioned efforts to change sexual orientation and virtually all of them have adopted policy statements cautioning the profession and the public about treatments that purport to change sexual orientation. These include the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, American Counseling Association, National Association of Social Workers in the USA, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and the Australian Psychological Society. The American Psychological Association and the Royal College of Psychiatrists expressed concerns that the positions espoused by NARTH are not supported by the science and create an environment in which prejudice and discrimination can flourish.
The American Psychological Association “encourages mental health professionals to avoid misrepresenting the efficacy of sexual orientation change efforts by promoting or promising change in sexual orientation when providing assistance to individuals distressed by their own or others’ sexual orientation and concludes that the benefits reported by participants in sexual orientation change efforts can be gained through approaches that do not attempt to change sexual orientation”.
Fluidity of orientation
The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has stated “some people believe that sexual orientation is innate and fixed; however, sexual orientation develops across a person’s lifetime”. In a joint statement with other major American medical organizations, the APA says that “different people realize at different points in their lives that they are heterosexual, gay, lesbian, or bisexual”. A report from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health states: “For some people, sexual orientation is continuous and fixed throughout their lives. For others, sexual orientation may be fluid and change over time”. One study has suggested “considerable fluidity in bisexual, unlabeled, and lesbian women’s attractions, behaviors, and identities”.
Gender and fluidity
In a 2004 study, the female subjects (both gay and straight women) became sexually aroused when they viewed heterosexual as well as lesbian erotic films. Among the male subjects, however, the straight men were turned on only by erotic films with women, the gay ones by those with men. The study’s senior researcher said that women’s sexual desire is less rigidly directed toward a particular sex, as compared with men’s, and it’s more changeable over time.
Parenting
See also: LGBT parenting
Scientific research has been consistent in showing that lesbian and gay parents are as fit and capable as heterosexual parents, and their children are as psychologically healthy and well-adjusted as children reared by heterosexual parents. According to scientific literature reviews, there is no evidence to the contrary.
Physical
The terms “Men who have sex with men” (MSM) and “women who have sex with women” (WSW) refer to people who engage in sexual activity with others of the same sex regardless of how they identify themselves—as many choose not to accept social identities as lesbian, gay and bisexual. These terms are often used in medical literature and social research to describe such groups for study, without needing to consider the issues of sexual self-identity. The terms are seen as problematic, however, because it “obscures social dimensions of sexuality; undermines the self-labeling of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people; and does not sufficiently describe variations in sexual behavior”. MSM and WSW are sexually active with each other for a variety of reasons with the main ones arguably sexual pleasure, intimacy and bonding. In contrast to its benefits, sexual behavior can be a disease vector. Safe sex is a relevant harm reduction philosophy. The United States currently prohibits men who have sex with men from donating blood “because they are, as a group, at increased risk for HIV, hepatitis B and certain other infections that can be transmitted by transfusion.”The UK and many European countries have the same prohibition.
Public health
These safer sex recommendations are agreed upon by public health officials for women who have sex with women to avoid sexually transmitted infections (STIs):
- Avoid contact with a partner’s menstrual blood and with any visible genital lesions.
- Cover sex toys that penetrate more than one person’s vagina or anus with a new condom for each person; consider using different toys for each person.
- Use a barrier (e.g., latex sheet, dental dam, cut-open condom, plastic wrap) during oral sex.
- Use latex or vinyl gloves and lubricant for any manual sex that might cause bleeding.
These safer sex recommendations are agreed upon by public health officials for men who have sex with men to avoid sexually transmitted infections (STIs):
- Avoid contact with a partner’s bodily fluids and with any visible genital lesions.
- Use a barrier (e.g., latex sheet, dental dam, cut-open condom) during anal–oral sex.
- Cover sex toys that penetrate more than one person with a new condom for each person; consider using different toys for each person and use latex or vinyl gloves and lubricant for any sex that might cause bleeding.
Mental
When it was first described in medical literature, homosexuality was often approached from a view that sought to find an inherent psychopathology as its root cause. Much literature on mental health and homosexual patients centered on their depression, substance abuse, and suicide. Although these issues exist among people who are non-heterosexual, discussion about their causes shifted after homosexuality was removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) in 1973. Instead, social ostracism, legal discrimination, internalization of negative stereotypes, and limited support structures indicate factors homosexual people face in Western societies that often adversely affect their mental health. Stigma, prejudice, and discrimination stemming from negative societal attitudes toward homosexuality lead to a higher prevalence of mental health disorders among lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals compared to their heterosexual peers. Evidence indicates that the liberalization of these attitudes over the past few decades is associated with a decrease in such mental health risks among younger LGBT people.
Gay and lesbian youth
Gay and lesbian youth bear an increased risk of suicide, substance abuse, school problems, and isolation because of a “hostile and condemning environment, verbal and physical abuse, rejection and isolation from family and peers”. Further, LGBT youths are more likely to report psychological and physical abuse by parents or caretakers, and more sexual abuse. Suggested reasons for this disparity are that (1) LGBT youths may be specifically targeted on the basis of their perceived sexual orientation or gender non-conforming appearance, and (2) that “risk factors associated with sexual minority status, including discrimination, invisibility, and rejection by family members…may lead to an increase in behaviors that are associated with risk for victimization, such as substance abuse, sex with multiple partners, or running away from home as a teenager.” A 2008 study showed a correlation between the degree of rejecting behavior by parents of LGB adolescents and negative health problems in the teenagers studied:
Higher rates of family rejection were significantly associated with poorer health outcomes. On the basis of odds ratios, lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide, 5.9 times more likely to report high levels of depression, 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs, and 3.4 times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection.
Crisis centers in larger cities and information sites on the Internet have arisen to help youth and adults. The Trevor Helpline, a suicide prevention helpline for gay youth, was established following the 1998 airing on HBO of the Academy Award winning short film Trevor.
History
Main articles: LGBT history and Timeline of LGBT history
Societal attitudes towards same-sex relationships have varied over time and place, from expecting all males to engage in same-sex relationships, to casual integration, through acceptance, to seeing the practice as a minor sin, repressing it through law enforcement and judicial mechanisms, and to proscribing it under penalty of death.
In a detailed compilation of historical and ethnographic materials of Preindustrial Cultures, “strong disapproval of homosexuality was reported for 41% of 42 cultures; it was accepted or ignored by 21%, and 12% reported no such concept. Of 70 ethnographies, 59% reported homosexuality absent or rare in frequency and 41% reported it present or not uncommon.”
In cultures influenced by Abrahamic religions, the law and the church established sodomy as a transgression against divine law or a crime against nature. The condemnation of anal sex between males, however, predates Christian belief. It was frequent in ancient Greece; “unnatural” can be traced back to Plato.
Many historical figures, including Socrates, Lord Byron, Edward II, and Hadrian, have had terms such as gay or bisexual applied to them; some scholars, such as Michel Foucault, have regarded this as risking the anachronistic introduction of a contemporary construction of sexuality foreign to their times, though others challenge this.
A common thread of constructionist argument is that no one in antiquity or the Middle Ages experienced homosexuality as an exclusive, permanent, or defining mode of sexuality. John Boswell has countered this argument by citing ancient Greek writings by Plato, which describe individuals exhibiting exclusive homosexuality.
Africa
Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum. Illustration from photograph © 1999 Greg Reeder.
Though often ignored or suppressed by European explorers and colonialists, homosexual expression in native Africa was also present and took a variety of forms. Anthropologists Stephen Murray and Will Roscoe reported that women in Lesotho engaged in socially sanctioned “long term, erotic relationships” called motsoalle. E. E. Evans-Pritchard also recorded that male Azande warriors in the northern Congo routinely took on young male lovers between the ages of twelve and twenty, who helped with household tasks and participated in intercrural sex with their older husbands. The practice had died out by the early 20th century, after Europeans had gained control of African countries, but was recounted to Evans-Pritchard by the elders to whom he spoke.
The first record of possible homosexual couple in history is commonly regarded as Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum, an Egyptian male couple, who lived around the 2400 BCE. The pair are portrayed in a nose-kissing position, the most intimate pose in Egyptian art, surrounded by what appear to be their heirs.
Americas
Dance to the Berdache Sac and Fox Nation ceremonial dance to celebrate the two-spirit person. George Catlin (1796–1872); Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Among indigenous peoples of the Americas prior to European colonization, a common form of same-sex sexuality centered around the figure of the Two-Spirit individual. Typically this individual was recognized early in life, given a choice by the parents to follow the path and, if the child accepted the role, raised in the appropriate manner, learning the customs of the gender it had chosen. Two-Spirit individuals were commonly shamans and were revered as having powers beyond those of ordinary shamans. Their sexual life was with the ordinary tribe members of the same sex.
Homosexual and transgender individuals were also common among other pre-conquest civilizations in Latin America, such as the Aztecs, Mayans, Quechuas, Moches, Zapotecs, and the Tupinambá of Brazil.
The Spanish conquerors were horrified to discover sodomy openly practiced among native peoples, and attempted to crush it out by subjecting the berdaches (as the Spanish called them) under their rule to severe penalties, including public execution, burning and being torn to pieces by dogs.
East Asia
A woman spying on a pair of male lovers. China, Qing dynasty.
In East Asia, same-sex love has been referred to since the earliest recorded history.
Homosexuality in China, known as the pleasures of the bitten peach, the cut sleeve, or the southern custom, has been recorded since approximately 600 BCE. These euphemistic terms were used to describe behaviors, not identities (recently some fashionable young Chinese tend to euphemistically use the term “brokeback”, 斷背 duanbei to refer to homosexual men, from the success of director Ang Lee‘s film Brokeback Mountain).[133] Homosexuality was mentioned in Chinese literature. The instances of same-sex affection and sexual interactions described in the classical novel Dream of the Red Chamber seem as familiar to observers in the present as do equivalent stories of romances between heterosexual people during the same period.
Homosexuality in Japan, variously known as shudo or nanshoku has been documented for over one thousand years and was an integral part of Buddhist monastic life and the samurai tradition. This same-sex love culture gave rise to strong traditions of painting and literature documenting and celebrating such relationships.
Similarly, in Thailand, Kathoey, or “ladyboys”, have been a feature of Thai society for many centuries, and Thai kings had male as well as female lovers. While Kathoey may encompass simple effeminacy or transvestism, it most commonly is treated in Thai culture as a third gender. They are generally accepted by society, and Thailand has never had legal prohibitions against homosexuality or homosexual behavior.
Europe
Further information: Homosexuality in ancient Greece, Homosexuality in ancient Rome
Roman man penetrating a youth, possibly a slave, middle of the 1st century AD. Found in Bittir (?), near Jerusalem.
The earliest Western documents (in the form of literary works, art objects, and mythographic materials) concerning same-sex relationships are derived from ancient Greece.
In regard of male homosexuality such documents depict a world in which relationships with women and relationships with youths were the essential foundation of a normal man’s love life. Same-sex relationships were a social institution variously constructed over time and from one city to another. The formal practice, an erotic yet often restrained relationship between a free adult male and a free adolescent, was valued for its pedagogic benefits and as a means of population control, though occasionally blamed for causing disorder. Plato praised its benefits in his early writings but in his late works proposed its prohibition. In the Symposium (182B-D), Plato equates acceptance of homosexuality with democracy, and its suppression with despotism, saying that homosexuality “is shameful to barbarians because of their despotic governments, just as philosophy and athletics are, since it is apparently not in best interests of such rulers to have great ideas engendered in their subjects, or powerful friendships or physical unions, all of which love is particularly apt to produce”.Aristotle, in the Politics, dismissed Plato’s ideas about abolishing homosexuality (2.4); he explains that barbarians like the Celts accorded it a special honor (2.6.6), while the Cretans used it to regulate the population (2.7.5).
Youth females are depicted as surrounding Sappho in this painting of Lafond "Sappho sings for Homer", 1824.
Little is known of female homosexuality in antiquity. Sappho, born on the island of Lesbos, was included by later Greeks in the canonical list of nine lyric poets. The adjectives deriving from her name and place of birth (Sapphic and Lesbian) came to be applied to female homosexuality beginning in the 19th century. Sappho’s poetry centers on passion and love for various personages and both genders. The narrators of many of her poems speak of infatuations and love (sometimes requited, sometimes not) for various females, but descriptions of physical acts between women are few and subject to debate.
Sappho reading to her companions on an Attic vase of c. 435 BC.
In Ancient Rome the young male body remained a focus of male sexual attention, but relationships were between older free men and slaves or freed youths who took the receptive role in sex. All the emperors with the exception of Claudius took male lovers. The Hellenophile emperor Hadrian is renowned for his relationship with Antinous, but the Christian emperor Theodosius I decreed a law on August 6, 390, condemning passive males to be burned at the stake. Justinian, towards the end of his reign, expanded the proscription to the active partner as well (in 558), warning that such conduct can lead to the destruction of cities through the “wrath of God”. Notwithstanding these regulations, taxes on brothels of boys available for homosexual sex continued to be collected until the end of the reign of Anastasius I in 518.
During the Renaissance, wealthy cities in northern Italy—Florence and Venice in particular—were renowned for their widespread practice of same-sex love, engaged in by a considerable part of the male population and constructed along the classical pattern of Greece and Rome. But even as many of the male population were engaging in same-sex relationships, the authorities, under the aegis of the Officers of the Night court, were prosecuting, fining, and imprisoning a good portion of that population. From the second half of the 13th century, death was the punishment for male homosexuality in most of Europe. The eclipse of this period of relative artistic and erotic freedom was precipitated by the rise to power of the moralizing monk Girolamo Savonarola. In northern Europe the artistic discourse on sodomy was turned against its proponents by artists such as Rembrandt, who in his Rape of Ganymede no longer depicted Ganymede as a willing youth, but as a squalling baby attacked by a rapacious bird of prey.
The relationships of socially prominent figures, such as King James I and the Duke of Buckingham, served to highlight the issue, including in anonymously authored street pamphlets: “The world is chang’d I know not how, For men Kiss Men, not Women now;…Of J. the First and Buckingham: He, true it is, his Wives Embraces fled, To slabber his lov’d Ganimede” (Mundus Foppensis, or The Fop Display’d, 1691).
Love Letters Between a Certain Late Nobleman and the Famous Mr. Wilson was published in 1723 in England and was presumed by some modern scholars to be a novel. The 1749 edition of John Cleland‘s popular novel Fanny Hill includes a homosexual scene, but this was removed in its 1750 edition. Also in 1749, the earliest extended and serious defense of homosexuality in English, Ancient and Modern Pederasty Investigated and Exemplified, written by Thomas Cannon, was published, but was suppressed almost immediately. It includes the passage, “Unnatural Desire is a Contradiction in Terms; downright Nonsense. Desire is an amatory Impulse of the inmost human Parts.” Around 1785 Jeremy Bentham wrote another defense, but this was not published until 1978. Executions for sodomy continued in the Netherlands until 1803, and in England until 1835.
Between 1864 and 1880 Karl Heinrich Ulrichs published a series of twelve tracts, which he collectively titled Research on the Riddle of Man-Manly Love. In 1867, he became the first self-proclaimed homosexual person to speak out publicly in defense of homosexuality when he pleaded at the Congress of German Jurists in Munich for a resolution urging the repeal of anti-homosexual laws. Sexual Inversion by Havelock Ellis, published in 1896, challenged theories that homosexuality was abnormal, as well as stereotypes, and insisted on the ubiquity of homosexuality and its association with intellectual and artistic achievement. Although medical texts like these (written partly in Latin to obscure the sexual details) were not widely read by the general public, they did lead to the rise of Magnus Hirschfeld‘s Scientific Humanitarian Committee, which campaigned from 1897 to 1933 against anti-sodomy laws in Germany, as well as a much more informal, unpublicized movement among British intellectuals and writers, led by such figures as Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds. Beginning in 1894 with Homogenic Love, Socialist activist and poet Edward Carpenter wrote a string of pro-homosexual articles and pamphlets, and “came out” in 1916 in his book My Days and Dreams. In 1900, Elisar von Kupffer published an anthology of homosexual literature from antiquity to his own time, Lieblingminne und Freundesliebe in der Weltliteratur. His aim was to broaden the public perspective of homosexuality beyond its being viewed simply as a medical or biological issue, but also as an ethical and cultural one. In a backlash to this, the Third Reich specifically targeted LGBT people in the Holocaust.
Middle East, South and Central Asia
Dance of a bacchá (dancing boy) Samarkand, (ca 1905–1915), photo Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii. Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Further information: Homosexuality and Islam and Category:LGBT in the Middle East
Among many Middle Eastern Muslim cultures egalitarian or age-structured homosexual practices were, and remain, widespread and thinly veiled. The prevailing pattern of same-sex relationships in the temperate and sub-tropical zone stretching from Northern India to the Western Sahara is one in which the relationships were—and are—either gender-structured or age-structured or both. In recent years, egalitarian relationships modeled on the western pattern have become more frequent, though they remain rare. Same-sex intercourse officially carries the death penalty in several Muslim nations: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, northern Nigeria, Sudan, and Yemen.
Some scholars argue that there are examples of homosexual love in ancient literature, like in the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh as well as in the Biblical story of David and Jonathan. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the relationship between the main protagonist Gilgamesh and the character Enkidu has been seen by some to be homosexual in nature.Similarly, David’s love for Jonathon is “greater than the love of women.”Admittedly, many of these examples are inherently problematic because of applying the modern category of “homosexuality” to a time where none-such forms of identity existed.
A tradition of art and literature sprang up constructing Middle Eastern homosexuality. Muslim—often Sufi—poets in medieval Arab lands and in Persia wrote odes to the beautiful wine boys who served them in the taverns.In many areas the practice survived into modern times, as documented by Richard Francis Burton, André Gide, and others.
There are a handful of accounts by Arab travelers to Europe during mid-1800s. Two of these travelers, Rifa’ah al-Tahtawi and Muhammad sl-Saffar, show their surprise that the French sometimes mis-translated love poetry about a young boy, instead referring to a young female, to maintain their social norms and morals.
In Persia homosexuality and homoerotic expressions were tolerated in numerous public places, from monasteries and seminaries to taverns, military camps, bathhouses, and coffee houses. In the early Safavid era (1501–1723), male houses of prostitution (amrad khane) were legally recognized and paid taxes. Persian poets, such as Sa’di (d. 1291), Hafez (d. 1389), and Jami (d. 1492), wrote poems replete with homoerotic allusions.The two most commonly documented forms were commercial sex with transgender young males or males enacting transgender roles exemplified by the köçeks and the bacchás, and Sufi spiritual practices in which the practitioner admired the form of a beautiful boy in order to enter ecstatic states and glimpse the beauty of god.
Today, governments in the Middle East often ignore, deny the existence of, or criminalize homosexuality. Homosexuality is illegal in almost all Muslim countries. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during his 2007 speech at Columbia University, asserted that there were no gay people in Iran. Gay people do live in Iran, but most keep their sexuality a secret for fear of government sanction or rejection by their families.
The Laws of Manu, the foundational work of Hindu law, mentions a “third sex”, members of which may engage in nontraditional gender expression and homosexual activities.
South Pacific
In many societies of Melanesia, especially in Papua New Guinea, same-sex relationships were an integral part of the culture until the middle of the last century. The Etoro and Marind-anim for example, even viewed heterosexuality as sinful and celebrated homosexuality instead. In many traditional Melanesian cultures a prepubertal boy would be paired with an older adolescent who would become his mentor and who would “inseminate” him (orally, anally, or topically, depending on the tribe) over a number of years in order for the younger to also reach puberty. Many Melanesian societies, however, have become hostile towards same-sex relationships since the introduction of Christianity by European missionaries.[156]
Legality
Further information: Sodomy law and LGBT rights by country or territory
See also: LGBT rights opposition
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Homosexuality legal
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Most nations do not impede consensual sex between unrelated persons above the local age of consent. Some jurisdictions further recognize identical rights, protections, and privileges for the family structures of same-sex couples, including marriage. Some nations mandate that all individuals restrict themselves to heterosexual relationships; that is, in some jurisdictions homosexual activity is illegal. Offenders can face the death penalty in some fundamentalist Muslim areas such as Iran and parts of Nigeria. There are, however, often significant differences between official policy and real-world enforcement. See Violence against LGBT people.
Although homosexual acts were decriminalized in some parts of the Western world, such as Poland in 1932, Denmark in 1933, Sweden in 1944, and the United Kingdom in 1967, it was not until the mid-1970s that the gay community first began to achieve limited civil rights in some developed countries. On July 2, 2009, homosexuality was decriminalized in India by a High Court ruling.[157] A turning point was reached in 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, thus negating its previous definition of homosexuality as a clinical mental disorder. In 1977, Quebec became the first state-level jurisdiction in the world to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation. During the 1980s and 1990s, most developed countries enacted laws decriminalizing homosexual behavior and prohibiting discrimination against lesbian and gay people in employment, housing, and services. On the other hand, many countries today in the Middle East and Africa, as well as several countries in Asia, the Caribbean and the South Pacific, outlaw homosexuality. In six countries, homosexual behavior is punishable by life imprisonment; in ten others, it carries the death penalty.
Sexual orientation and the law
United States
- Employment discrimination refers to discriminatory employment practices such as bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, and compensation, and various types of harassment. In the United States there is “very little statutory, common law, and case law establishing employment discrimination based upon sexual orientation as a legal wrong.” Some exceptions and alternative legal strategies are available. President Bill Clinton‘s Executive Order 13087 (1998) prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in the competitive service of the federal civilian workforce,[160] and federal non-civil service employees may have recourse under the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution.[161] Private sector workers may have a Title VII action under a quid pro quo sexual harassment theory, a “hostile work environment” theory, a sexual stereotyping theory, or others.
- Housing discrimination refers to discrimination against potential or current tenants by landlords. In the United States, there is no federal law against such discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, but at least thirteen states and many major cities have enacted laws prohibiting it.
- Hate crimes (also known as bias crimes) are crimes motivated by bias against an identifiable social group, usually groups defined by race (classification of human beings), religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, or political affiliation. In the United States, 45 states and the District of Columbia have statutes criminalizing various types of bias-motivated violence or intimidation (the exceptions are AZ, GA, IN, SC, and WY). Each of these statutes covers bias on the basis of race, religion, and ethnicity; 32 of them cover sexual orientation, 28 cover gender, and 11 cover transgender/gender-identity.[166] In October 2009, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which “…gives the Justice Department the power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability”, was signed into law and makes hate crime based on sexual orientation, amongst other offenses, a federal crime in the United States.
European Union
In the European Union discrimination of any type based on sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal under the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
Political activism
Further information: LGBT social movements
Barbara Gittings picketing Independence Hall July 4, 1966. Photo taken by Kay Lahusen.
Since the 1960s, many LGBT people in the West, particularly those in major metropolitan areas, have developed a so-called gay culture. To many, gay culture is exemplified by the gay pride movement, with annual parades and displays of rainbow flags. Yet not all LGBT people choose to participate in “queer culture”, and many gay men and women specifically decline to do so. To some it seems to be a frivolous display, perpetuating gay stereotypes. To some others, the gay culture represents heterophobia and is scorned as widening the gulf between gay and non-gay people.
With the outbreak of AIDS in the early 1980s, many LGBT groups and individuals organized campaigns to promote efforts in AIDS education, prevention, research, patient support, and community outreach, as well as to demand government support for these programs. Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Project Inform, and ACT UP are some notable American examples of the LGBT community’s response to the AIDS crisis.
The bewildering death toll wrought by the AIDS epidemic at first seemed to slow the progress of the gay rights movement, but in time it galvanized some parts of the LGBT community into community service and political action, and challenged the heterosexual community to respond compassionately. Major American motion pictures from this period that dramatized the response of individuals and communities to the AIDS crisis include An Early Frost (1985), Longtime Companion (1990), And the Band Played On (1993), Philadelphia (1993), and Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989), the last referring to the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, last displayed in its entirety on the Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1996.
Publicly gay politicians have attained numerous government posts, even in countries that had sodomy laws in their recent past. Examples include Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s Vice-Chancellor; Peter Mandelson, a British Labour Party cabinet minister and Per-Kristian Foss, formerly Norwegian Minister of Finance.
LGBT movements are opposed by a variety of individuals and organizations. Some social conservatives believe that all sexual relationships with people other than an opposite-sex spouse undermine the traditional family and that children should be reared in homes with both a father and a mother. There is concern that gay rights may conflict with individuals’ freedom of speech, religious freedoms in the workplace, the ability to run churches, charitable organizations and other religious organizations in accordance with one’s religious views, and that the acceptance of homosexual relationships by religious organizations might be forced through threatening to remove the tax-exempt status of churches whose views do not align with those of the government.
Critics charge that political correctness has led to the association of sex between males and HIV being downplayed.
Relationships
In 2006, the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association and National Association of Social Workers stated in an Amicus Brief presented to the Supreme Court of the State of California: “Gay men and lesbians form stable, committed relationships that are equivalent to heterosexual relationships in essential respects. The institution of marriage offers social, psychological, and health benefits that are denied to same-sex couples. By denying same-sex couples the right to marry, the state reinforces and perpetuates the stigma historically associated with homosexuality. Homosexuality remains stigmatized, and this stigma has negative consequences. California’s prohibition on marriage for same-sex couples reflects and reinforces this stigma”. They concluded: “There is no scientific basis for distinguishing between same-sex couples and heterosexual couples with respect to the legal rights, obligations, benefits, and burdens conferred by civil marriage.”
Military service
The US Army defines homosexual conduct as "a homosexual act, a statement by a soldier that demonstrates a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts, the solicitation of another to engage in homosexual act or acts, or a homosexual marriage or attempted marriage."
Main article: Sexual orientation and military service
Policies and attitudes toward gay and lesbian military personnel vary widely around the world. Some countries allow gay men, lesbians, and bisexual people to serve openly and have granted them the same rights and privileges as their heterosexual counterparts. Many countries neither ban nor support LGB service members. A few countries continue to ban homosexual personnel outright.
Most Western military forces have removed policies excluding sexual minority members. Of the 26 countries that participate militarily in NATO, more than 20 permit openly gay, lesbian and bisexual people to serve. Of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, three (United Kingdom, France and United States) do so. The other two generally do not: China bans gay and lesbian people outright, Russia excludes all gay and lesbian people during peacetime but allows some gay men to serve in wartime (see below). Israel is the only country in the Middle East region that allows openly LGB people to serve in the military.
While the question of homosexuality in the military has been highly politicized in the United States, it is not necessarily so in many countries. Generally speaking, sexuality in these cultures is considered a more personal aspect of one’s identity than it is in the United States.
According to American Psychological Association empirical evidence fails to show that sexual orientation is germane to any aspect of military effectiveness including unit cohesion, morale, recruitment and retention. Sexual orientation is irrelevant to task cohesion, the only type of cohesion that critically predicts the team’s military readiness and success.
On March 18, 2010, after U.S. President Obama announced that he wanted to put an end to the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, former U.S. general and high ranking NATO official John Sheehan blamed homosexuals serving in the Dutch military for the fall of Srebrenica to Serb militias in the Bosnian War fifteen years earlier, stating that homosexuals had weakened the Dutch UN battalion charged with protecting the enclave. In the U.S. Senate, Sheehan said that European countries had tried to “socialize” their armed forces by letting people serve in the army too easily, which according to him, left them weakened. He claimed that his opinion was shared by the leadership of the Dutch armed forces, mentioning the name “Hankman Berman”, most probably referring to the then chief of the Dutch defence staff, Henk van den Breemen. Dutch authorities dismissed Sheehan’s statements as “disgraceful” and “total nonsense”.
Religion
Main article: Religion and homosexuality
Though the relationship between homosexuality and religion can vary greatly across time and place, within and between different religions and sects, and regarding different forms of homosexuality and bisexuality, current authoritative bodies and doctrines of the world’s largest religions generally view homosexuality negatively. This can range from quietly discouraging homosexual activity, to explicitly forbidding same-sex sexual practices among adherents and actively opposing social acceptance of homosexuality. Some teach that homosexual orientation itself is sinful, while the Catholic Church states that only the sexual act itself is a sin. Some claim that homosexuality can be overcome through religious faith and practice. On the other hand, voices exist within many of these religions that view homosexuality more positively, and liberal religious denominations may bless same-sex marriages. Some view same-sex love and sexuality as sacred, and a mythology of same-sex love can be found around the world. Regardless of their position on homosexuality, many people of faith look to both sacred texts and tradition for guidance on this issue. However, the authority of various traditions or scriptural passages and the correctness of translations and interpretations have been disputed.
Heterosexism and homophobia
Further information: Heterosexism and Homophobia
Protests in New York City against Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Protests in New York City against Uganda‘s Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
In many cultures, homosexual people are frequently subject to prejudice and discrimination. Similar to other minority groups they can also be subject to stereotyping. These attitudes tend to be due to forms of homophobia and heterosexism (negative attitudes, bias, and discrimination in favor of opposite-sex sexuality and relationships). Heterosexism can include the presumption that everyone is heterosexual or that opposite-sex attractions and relationships are the norm and therefore superior. Homophobia is a fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexual people. It manifests in different forms, and a number of different types have been postulated, among which are internalized homophobia, social homophobia, emotional homophobia, rationalized homophobia, and others.[199] Similar is lesbophobia (specifically targeting lesbians) and biphobia (against bisexual people). When such attitudes manifest as crimes they are often called hate crimes and gay bashing.
Negative stereotypes characterize LGB people as less romantically stable, more promiscuous and more likely to abuse children, but there is no scientific basis to such assertions. Gay men and lesbians form stable, committed relationships that are equivalent to heterosexual relationships in essential respects. Sexual orientation does not affect the likelihood that people will abuse children. Claims that there is scientific evidence to support an association between being gay and being a pedophile are based on misuses of those terms and misrepresentation of the actual evidence.
Violence against gay and lesbian people
Main article: Violence against LGBT people
In the United States, the FBI reported that 15.6% of hate crimes reported to police in 2004 were based on perceived sexual orientation. Sixty-one percent of these attacks were against gay men. The 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay student, is a notorious such incident in the U.S.
Homosexual behavior in animals
Main article: Homosexual behavior in animals
Roy and Silo, two New York Central Park Zoo male Chinstrap Penguins similar to those pictured, became internationally known when they coupled and later were given an egg that needed hatching and care, which they successfully did.
Homosexual behavior in animals refers to the documented evidence of homosexual, bisexual and transgender behavior in non-human animals. Such behaviors include sex, courtship, affection, pair bonding, and parenting. Homosexual and bisexual behavior are widespread in the animal kingdom: a 1999 review by researcher Bruce Bagemihl shows that homosexual behavior has been observed in close to 1500 species, ranging from primates to gut worms, and is well documented for 500 of them. Animal sexual behavior takes many different forms, even within the same species. The motivations for and implications of these behaviors have yet to be fully understood, since most species have yet to be fully studied. According to Bagemihl, “the animal kingdom [does] it with much greater sexual diversity—including homosexual, bisexual and nonreproductive sex—than the scientific community and society at large have previously been willing to accept.”
PostCard
Personal Diversity
I was asked to design a postcard that would give you a first impression and a rough idea to what I want this project to be and the aim of the project. This is my postcard. I want to show people just because there is homosexual people or because the are homosexual doesn’t necessarily mean thats all they are or have to be.
Project Idea – Short Description & Possible Name
Possible Name – I Am Who I Am.
– We Are Who We Are.
I’m not 100% sure about these names at this moment, mostly because I’m not 100% sure about the angle of my project as yet. But hopefully this short description will give you an insight to what I am thinking.
This isn’t going to be a typical Pro-Gay Campaign, we have all seen the campaigns that are for homosexuality; LGBT Rights, Gay marriage, and equality for homosexuals and gay people just being acknowledged etc. Then we have also see the other side of them, where people object to homosexuality, think it is unnatural, illegal, unfaithful, and just plain wrong. My aim is to bring knowledge and understanding to people who don’t understand fully what homosexuality is and why the homosexuality community exists. Also to the young homosexuals that are victims of hate crimes. I want to let them understand their homosexuality is not what defines them and they are just like everyone else and can be who or what ever they want. There is just so many different angles and viewers for this campaign I’m not sure which direction I want to take it until I do further research.
I Am Who I Am 