Homosexuality Essay

For many years, psychologists described homosexuality as a disorder or a treatable complex. Recently, homosexuality was removed from the DSM and is no longer considered a disorder. The gay population is no longer treated as sick but accepted as a diverse set of individuals. The many distinguishing attributes and characteristics of a gay or lesbian individual are considered to be personality attributes.

The topic of homosexuality in religion has many sides. There are those who believe that it is a sin in God’s eyes and according to the Bible, and there are those who believe the God and the Bible are not specific to homosexuals. It is a tough debate based on whether you are a religious person, how you were raised, and where your morals and ethics stand. You cannot truly believe one way without taking into account the other side and have valid proof to back it up.

Homosexuality has had a long battle through America, the thought of homosexuality was a mental disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-II Code 302 Sexual Deviation Sub-Section 302.0 Homosexuality. It stays “this category is for individuals whose sexual interests are directed primarily toward objects other than people

“You’re gay,” a term now used so freely to not only insult peers but to take a stab at the homosexual community. But was this homosexual stigma always prevalent in history? Over two thousand years ago, the ancient Roman state ruled most of the known world. During those five hundred years, emperors rose to power and fell, a republic formed and was destroyed but what perhaps is one the most important aspects of Roman society is free love.

Homosexuality was never favored upon and still isn’t to this day. Discrimination against homosexuality started a long time ago. It was pronounced illegal in many cultures and religions. Many homosexuals would face the death penalty for breaking the laws and many were blamed for natural disasters such as earthquakes, because homosexuality was not favored. It is said that in ancient Greek culture that the physical attraction was considered

Throughout the course of history, the topic of homosexuality and its acceptable behavior has been one of varying opinions and much heated debate. Although how tolerated homosexual behavior was all through history can differ depending on who your source is, most everyone can agree that a few large cultures were either strongly for, or against, homosexuality.

In the non- fiction book Homophobia: A History, author Byrne Fone explains, “In the last years of his life, around 350 B.C.E., Plato wrote his final major work, the Laws, in which he [displays favor of] the argument that homosexual behavior is unnatural” (Fone 34).

In ancient Greek society, Zeus’s plethora of sexual escapades were often seen as contradictory. There are many ways in which the Greeks could have rationalized these actions, but there are two main ways that could have been used. First, Zeus was one of the most powerful gods during his time, if not the most powerful. This could have influenced the Greeks interpretation of his actions. Secondly, in ancient Greece, polyamory was more common than monogamy, which would have lessened the overall contradictory nature of Zeus’s actions.

Social attitudes about “homosexuality” in ancient Rome differed remarkably to those assumptions of the contemporary Western civilization. The Greeks and Romans had no concept of homosexuality or heterosexuality; the ancient world was exceptionally tolerant of homosexuality, or more specifically bisexuality, as these relationships had been present even in Trajan’s reign. Male prostitutes were appropriately common on the streets, however, what was of great consequence within the sexual relationship between two men were age and the status of sexual dominance and sexual submission (Potts). Men were free to take part in sexual behaviors with other men without any perceived loss of social status, provided that the older male of higher status was in the commanding position. This status reflected on ones manhood and masculinity, “the role of the submissive reduced the passive partner to the level of a woman (Potts).” Nevertheless, Men were still expected to have sexual attraction and relationships towards women because virility and procreation were important to Roman

Ancient Greece is considered as being the most accepting of homosexuality. The belief that the human body was worthy of respect and admiration is one of the reasons that homosexuality was tolerated and often accepted in society. They did not see it as an evil thing because

Homophobia Through the years it would be delightful to believe that society has gotten more accepting of minorities. While in many ways this is true, it is also a false statement as well. The United States has gone through leaps and bounds over the last century. Women were the first to win their rights, and after that African Americans broke through the barriers of oppression.

The heterosexual imaginary is immensely ingrained in our everyday experience that most people, including feminist sociologists, has become inclined to conceptualize and theorize based around the heteronormative. The heterosexual imaginary acts as an invisible framework at play that structures our thinking processes and in which constructs our social identity. For instance, the inquiry of a survey taker’s marital status in most social science surveys come to show that our recognized and appropriate social identity is formed around heterosexuality. That is, any deviation from this heterosexual norm would be considered abnormal and be marginalized. To a minimal extent, this focus has served the interests of women because of the lack of activism

Culturally, this type of behavior had no definite wrong or abnormal connotation strapped to it. As Neil Miller describes, "In the 1870s, a concept of homosexual identity--or of gay and lesbian community--was barely articulated" (Miller xvii). In America, the idea of homosexual love was beyond societal understanding. Prior to the introduction of homosexuality people were free to care about each other on levels without the constraints of any insecurity base on a the possibility of getting a label.

Just as other interpersonal themes, sexual themes in film are often depictions of sexual themes that exist in real life relationships. For this very reason, it is very easy for a person to compare his relationships with that of a relationship shown in media or film. Some relationships are total train wrecks from the start while others are not necessarily ideal, but healthy. Although not seen very often, ideal couples in film are attributed with characteristics that are seen by society as desirable; youthful, attractive people who are hyper-sexual and affectionate. As cliché as it sounds, sometimes relationships are simply “complicated”. Such is the case in the film It’s Complicated.

“All men are created equal, No matter how hard you try, you can never erase those words,” Harvey Milk. A homosexual, as defined by the dictionary, is someone of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex. Homosexuality is ethical, and I will provide rational arguments for, and irrational arguments against the topic. A few objections are as follows: It is forbidden in the Bible and frowned upon by God; It is unnatural; Men and women are needed to reproduce; There are no known examples in nature; and the most common argument that concerns homosexuality is whether it is a choice or human biology.