Homosexuality

(these ideas drawn from Goode, 1994-2008 chapter 10. See the disclaimer)

Lots of Misunderstanding

• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• Why?

THE WORLD OF HOMOSEXUALITY, SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

OUTING

Outweek's 1990 article: "The Secret Gay Life of Malcolm Forbes." marked the beginning of the phenomenon of exposing, against their will, the fact that certain supposed heterosexual are secretly practicing homosexuals or "outing"  

• Some gays consider  "outing" an outrageous invasion of their privacy
• Some gays approve of the practice on the principal, arguing that secrecy about sexual orientation hurts all gays and lesbians and helps to maintain a stigmatizing oppressive system.  "outing" provides young homosexuals with positive role models, demonstrating that there are many successful famous men and women who are gay and lesbian.
• A middle ground and probably the majority opinion in the gay community is adopted by observers who feel that "outing" is ethically justified when specific closet homosexual engage in behavior that is harmful to homosexuals.

QUEER THEORY

In "Sisters and Queers: The Decentering of Lesbian Feminism" Stein argus that "queer" is a better term than "lesbian" because it emphasizes what can't be assimilated.

• "Queer" emphasizes the apartness and differences of gays and lesbians "You can't eliminate queerness or screen it out. It is an affirmation that for thousands of years history and literature have been seen though the perspective of heterosexual males; gendering history and literature - uncovering the patriarchal, heterosexist biases in past intellectual enterprises - will enable us to cast off oppressive structures and liberate our true nature, enable us to be who we really are." By adopting this theory homosexuals are throwing off the chains of gender oppression and domination and are subverting patriarchy.
• The Queer Theorist want "to emphasize the queerness of queers." They reject the idea that being a homosexual is an alternative to being straight, parallel to it in every way.
• At present nearly all who call themselves queer theorists are academics teaching in English, humanities, of film departments

Legal Changes  

• In 1990, three states Texas, Kentucky, and Michigan repealed their laws outlawing homosexual practices.
• By 2000 28 states, homosexual practices are legal, six outlawed certain "deviate" practices - (sodomy).
• June 2003: 4 states still criminalized homosexual sodomy
• June 2003: Lawrence v. Texas- Supreme Court overturns 1986 Bowers v. Hardwick: States cannot criminalize homosexual sodomy, specifically
• At the present time 87 cities or countries have passed ordinances prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
• Nine states also extend legal civil rights protection to gays.
• 2003: Canadian Parliment "endorses" gay marriage. USA--evenly split?
• But, some jurisdictions (Cincinnati) specifically prohibit laws from being passed that protect homosexuals from discrimination.
• Nationally, a majority of Americans favor the passage of equal-rights laws protecting homosexuals against job discrimination, by a margin of almost two to one - 62% favor, 32% oppose.
• However, two-thirds (65%) also believe that "too much attention is being paid" to the issue of homosexual rights and less than half say that they would vote for homosexual candidate (48%), allow their child to watch a TV program with a homosexual character in it (46%), attend religious services presided over by gay clergy (42%), allow there child to attend a preschool that had homosexual staff members (42%) and see a homosexual doctor (39%).

SO: Most Americans are against discrimination against gays, but admit they would practice it themselves.

ETILOGY  (cause?)

Many homosexuals claim that they have no more choice in becoming gay than heterosexuals did in being straight, that is seems almost inconceivable that there is no genetic or hormonal component in its etiology.

Studies in 1991,1992, and 1995, found anatomical differences were located in the brains of homosexuals and heterosexuals. They claim that there is a 99.5% certainty that there is a gene or set of genes that predispose men to become homosexual.

• A strikingly higher proportion of brothers of identical twins of homosexual men (52%) to be gay themselves than was true of fraternal brothers (22%) and genetically unrelated adopted brothers (11%); this study argued for a possible genetic origin of homosexuality.

BUT: this is controversial because the brain studies relied on the organs of deceased AIDS patients who were known to have engaged in homosexual relations; it is possible that the disease generated the difference the scientist observed, not the homosexuality.

AND: correlation does not demonstrate causality; it is entirely possible that engaging in certain sexual practices trigger biological processes that influence cerebral structure.

BUT: some gay activists have endorsed the findings, arguing that they show how unjust society's condemnation of homosexuality is; while other gay activities reject this argument, claiming the reasons why one seeks the companionship of same-sex partners should be irrelevant. Thus, the involuntary character of homosexuality is quite beside the point.

SO: The controversy continues.

Family Values

During the 1992 presidential campaign, homosexuality became  an issue as never before in the nations history; Republicans opposed civil right statutes that mentioned sexual preference status as defining a protected minority. Democratic Bill Clinton and Al Gore represented the most pro -lesbian and pro gay ticket in history.

BUT: the family values theme proved to lack appeal to the majority of voters who were more concerned about basic meat and potatoes issues such as jobs and the economy.

SO:  the stress on family values backfired for the Republicans, it failed to catch fire in the national election.

BUT: it remains absolutely central in hundreds of local elections: "family values" candidates are most likely to have a substantial impact on local school boards.

2004 election: "morality" dominates electoral process. The pendulum swings.

Gays In the Military?  

• 1980's  - more than 15,000 homosexuals were dismissed from the military.
• 1994 - President Clinton's "don't ask don't tell" - a compromise which made neither gays nor conservatives happy - 5,976 military personnel were discharged for homosexuality; in 1997 the total was 996.
• Currently the issue of gays in the military has reached something of a stalemate with neither side achieving a clear-cut resolution

Gay Bashing

• "gay bashing" - the physical attack on men and women specifically because they are thought or recognized by their assailants to be homosexuals - rose in the 1990s.
• In a survey of five cities, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute found that anti-homosexual Violence increased between 1989 and 1990 by over 40% and from 1990 to 1991 by over 30%.
• The number of documented anti-gay murders increased the Institute said, from 3 to 8 in the 1990-1991 period.

  As a result of the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990, the FBI has collected and recorded data on hate crimes form law enforcement agencies around the country. The program is voluntary and as of 1998 just over 10,000 jurisdictions whose populations made up roughly 216 million Americans, complied by sending Washington the relevant information:

  •  A total of 7,755 basis-motivated incidents were reported to the FBI. It is almost certain that many more than half of the incidents that actually took place were not reported. Of this total 1,260 respondents or 16% of the incidents were motivated by hostility to the victim's sexual orientation. (2004 data table 15.4%)
    • 40% entailed assault
  • 20% vandalism
  • 34% resulted from intimidation
  • the rest were miscellaneous
  • a total for 4 murders

GAY MARRIGE?  

• The most recent battleground
• in 1997 Hawaii made same-sex marriages are legal
• Currently, 19 states are considering legislation to deny government recognition to marriages that they have taken place in that or any state
• Mo Governor Holdon recently recants on his campaign promise to the Saint Louis Lesbian and Gay community
• Gallup poll - a clear majority of the American public 68% opposes legal homosexuals marriages; 27% approve. Current?
• Gay marriage proposals lose in 11 states during November 2004 elections.

The Media

• 2003: Bride's magazine, article on homosexual weddings (covered in The New York Times)
• 1970s "Marcus Welby" versus "Queer as Folk" and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."

• Rejecting the Gay Brain
• Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide
• National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce
• Stonewall Riots (wikipedia)

Essentialism vs. Constructionism

Essentialist:

• "Natural" category
• Universal
• Exists before its defined
• Specific type of being
• Clear distinction between homosexual and heterosexual

Social Constructionist:

Pathology?

• Either/or ideology vs. Dimensions and degrees
• Essentialism
• "Science"=psychoanalysis
• Psycho-sexual disorder?
• Heterosexual destiny?
• Anatomically determined?
• Unnatural?
• Reproduction?

Critique

Deviance-Yes

Deviance- Ambiguity??

Dimensions

"Sex in America"

How many Homosexuals Are There?

A low level of homosexuality  was revealed:

• 2.8% of men consider themselves as homosexual or bisexual
• 1.4% of  women consider themselves as homosexual or bisexual
• 6% of men were attracted to persons of the same gender and 4% said that they found the thought of sex with someone of the same gender appealing
• 4% of women were attracted to persons of the same gender and 5.5% said that they found the thought of sex with someone of the same gender appealing
• 2% of both men and women said that they had had sex with someone of the same gender during the past year
• 5% of the men and 4 % of the women had had sex with someone of the same gender since puberty

Conclusions:

1. There is no single infallible measure of homosexuality as some essentialist researches have claimed, homosexual sex is multidimensional.
2. Homosexual expression is a distinctly "gendered" experience; men and women have dramatically different homosexual "styles"
3. Many more males act on homosexual desires than females, especially from the onset of adolescence to the age of 18.
4. Many more women who experience homosexual attraction and desire do no act on them. ( 59%  have experienced a homosexual desire without engaging in homosexual sex or regarding themselves as lesbians)
5. Among females there is much less adolescent homosexual sex than among males.
6. Males act on their homosexual impulses earlier in their lives and with much less inhibition; many of them experiment with homosexual behavior in adolescence and the give it up.
7. Women engage in homosexual behavior for the first time much later in their lives.

BUT:  the  figures turned up by the "Sex in America" survey, are much lower than the figures turned up by Kinsey's's research team a half century ago. Why?

1. Most observers and commentators of homosexuality reside in the nation's largest cities and there suburbs where homosexuality is vastly more common rather than in its small towns and rural areas where it is exceedingly rare. (The % identifying themselves as homosexuals or bisexuals varies form 9 % in the country's dozen largest cities to 1% in rural areas)
2. It must be recognized that there is likely to be a political angle to the findings a survey on homosexuality may turn up.
   1. The goals of gay political activities are furthered by the finding that there are many homosexuals in the population, since this means that politicians cannot ignore a major segment of their constituency and must take their interests and demands into account.
   2. A conservative agenda is likely to be furthered by the discovery that there are few homosexuals in the population. The smaller the number of Americans who engage in the homosexuality the more plausible the claim that the vast majority of us "would never dream of indulging in such behavior"
3. The prevalence of homosexuality in America depends very much on what homosexuality means in the first place - how it is defined? Constructionist perspectives assumes central importance. How should we define "a" homosexual?  

Becoming and Coming Out:

• Identity
• Disclosure
• Sub-cultural participation
• Behavior--Identity: variable
• Process (average--6 years): Not simple social learning
  1. 1st define away--a phase
  2. Guilt
  3. Ambiguity--did it but not a homosexual: no role acceptance, doing vs. Being.
  4. Suspect
  5. Persistence of desire/lack of heterosexual desire
  6. Failure to explain away
  7. Meaningful experience
  8. Significant other: defines for the individual
  9. Realization of normalcy of others
  10. Pride
  11. Synthesis

Male/Female Differences