Homosexuality

Overview

Homosexuality is predominantly an issue where it relates to the right of an individual to have intimate or sexual relationships with another person of the same physical gender.

Reference

• Wikipedia

Related Articles

• Homosexuality is a sexuality issue.
• Many people think same-sex marriage should be (as it currently is, in much of the United States and in some other parts of the world) illegal.

Arguments

Con

I haven't seen any of these arguments actually spelled out succinctly, but this is a list of what most of them seem to be getting at.

• Homosexuality upsets the social order, disrupting the traditional lines of authority and leading towards chaos (moral and otherwise)
• Homosexuality spreads AIDS, harming heterosexuals as well as homosexuals
• Homosexuality is condemned by God: (This is solely an argument from authority, as God never explains what is so terrible about it, and is probably a misattribution as well.)

Pro

• Homosexuals must make a conscious decision and expend considerable additional effort in order to reproduce, thus minimizing the number of unwanted children for which they are responsible (and hence reducing homosexuals' overall burden to society)
• Many cultural/religious sentiments against homosexuality probably arose in pre-industrial society where maximization of reproduction was vital to survival; we now have the opposite problem, or (at best) no need to maximize reproduction
• Actively suppressing homosexuality causes a great deal of personal suffering and hardship, and puts at least one significant roadblock in the way of homosexuals' "pursuit of happiness", a right guaranteed by the US Constitution
• Failure to legally support the rights of homosexuals as equal citizens allows them to be harmed and persecuted without cause, and gives apparent sanction to religiously-based hatred and violence towards homosexuals
• Failure to grant homosexual couples similar protections and freedoms to those granted to heterosexual couples causes hardship on homosexual-parented families, and harms the well-being of any children they may be raising

Nature vs. Nurture

Much argument about homosexuality centers around the theory (for which there is apparently strong evidence) that homosexuality is an innate biological property, fixed either prenatally or during the first few years of life. This argument is largely irrelevant, for the following reasons:

• Any argument based on the presumption that homosexuality is or is not natural is utilizing the appeal to nature fallacy.
• Defending homosexuality on the basis that it is natural contradicts the stand that homosexuality is not a disease to be cured, the latter appearing to be majority opinion among advocates of homosexual rights.

The argument that homosexuality is "unnatural", as untrue as it may be and as easy as it is to counter, distracts attention away from the true issue of how support for homosexuality would actually affect society.

Religious Viewpoints

The Bible

• quotes condemning homosexuality:
  • Leviticus 18:22: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable." (This of course says nothing regarding lesbianism.) All of Leviticus 18 seems to concern laws regarding sexual relationships.
  • 1 Corinthians 6:9,10: "...Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men kept for unnatural purposes, nor men who lie with men... will inherit God's kingdom."
• It should be noted, however, that "The Sin of Sodom" was not homosexuality, but being "arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49, NIV translation)

Links

• BornDifferent.org: advocacy site based on the theory that homosexuality is biologically-based
  • No Moo Lies: counterargument site by Focus on the Family
• Lambda Legal: organization fighting sexuality-based discrimination

News

• 2007-02-03 Turkish government proposes to outlaw LGBT websites

Bumperstickers etc.

"If homosexuality is a disease, let's call in queer to work." (seen here)