HOMOSEXUALITY

Homosexuality; a choice or predestined from birth

Homosexuality; a choice or predestined from birth

Introduction

Homosexuality generally refers to sexual and/or emotional attraction to members of the same sex. Homosexuality is considered to be a sexual orientation along with heterosexuality, or attraction to members of the opposite sex, and bisexuality, or the potential for attraction to members of both sexes.(Haldeman, 2008) In addition to attraction, sexual orientation may also refer to the practice of sexual relations with members of the desired sex.

Cross-culturally, there are diverse ways in which people perceive their attraction to members of the same sex or engage in sexual relations with them. In many cases, same-sex relations exist in addition to opposite-sex relations. They are sometimes limited to particular contexts, such as rites of passage, certain periods of life, or specific age-based relationships.(Weeks, 2001) In other cases, same-sex behavior is connected with gender variance, where an individual takes on the social role of the opposite sex. There are also cases where same-sex acts that would be labeled as “sex” by many Westerners do not qualify as “sex” to the local participants.(Herdt, 2004)

Although it exists in human societies around the world, as well as in some other animal species, homosexuality is often an issue of great contention.(Nanda, 2000) Its existence is considered natural or tolerable in some cultural areas, and in some cases, unions between members of the same sex are legally or socially recognized. In other locations, this is considered unnatural and is prohibited, sometimes to the extent that individuals thought to have transgressed this taboo are severely punished by imprisonment or death.(Haldeman, 2008)

Choice or Predestined From Birth

In addition, important research regarding human evolution during this time concerned natural selection, which is directly concerned with reproductive success and the transmittal of adaptive genes as forces of physical and behavioral change in living species. With an emerging scientific worldview that considered reproduction to be a driving human force, any behavior that appeared to deviate from it was unsurprisingly viewed as counterproductive and unhealthy in terms of the individual or group that participated in such acts.(Nanda, 2000)

This view of homosexuality had an impact in the field of anthropology. Physical anthropologists, concerned with human evolution, rarely considered the possibility of the existence of homosexual behavior in early human societies. In addition, early ethnographers and other observers of worldwide cultural behavior had a tendency to project Western values and ideas upon other societies. The existence of same-sex emotional attachments or sexual behavior in many areas was therefore frequently overlooked, since the evidence was not visible to Westerners who had predetermined criteria for what constituted this behavior.

Today, there is still dispute in the scientific world regarding the causes of same-sex attraction.(Weeks, 2001) While some biologists continue to seek genetic sources, some cultural anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists focus on the function and meaning of same-sex attraction and sexual relations, in particular, social structures and contexts. Some scholars in all fields disagree upon whether homosexuality is a choice or a biological ...