Arkansas high court backs gay foster parents

[Huckleman2000]

People react negatively to homosexuals because they're different and we've been conditioned by evolution that what's different is dangerous...a possible threat to ourselves. That's why straight men gay bash, because gay men threaten their masculinity and they need to prove to others, and especially themselves, that they aren't like that. Afterall, you don't attack and try to kill that which is a part of your tribe/type.

Not to send this off in yet another direction, but I read about a study recently where they hooked up some kind of erecto-meter to mens penises and showed them gay porn. The men who were homophobic were the ones that got erections! I'm sure that's an over simplification, but it was something along those lines. I'll see if I can find it again.

 

[Tom Collins]

Not to send this off in yet another direction, but I read about a study recently where they hooked up some kind of erecto-meter to mens penises and showed them gay porn. The men who were homophobic were the ones that got erections! I'm sure that's an over simplification, but it was something along those lines. I'll see if I can find it again.

That's what I'm saying, Huck. They see homosexuals as being different and being different is bad so they're scared to be gay. They feel threatened and beat them up to prove they aren't like them because you don't beat on that which is like you. This is all working on an unconcious level. They don't really know why they're doing it. All they know is they hate them.

 

[Huckleman2000]

Here's the study:

Study links homophobia with homosexual arousal

Press release, The American Psychological Association
Aug. 1996
WASHINGTON -- Psychoanalytic theory holds that homophobia -- the fear, anxiety, anger, discomfort and aversion that some ostensibly heterosexual people hold for gay individuals -- is the result of repressed homosexual urges that the person is either unaware of or denies. A study appearing in the August 1996 issue of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA), provides new empirical evidence that is consistent with that theory.

Researchers at the University of Georgia conducted an experiment involving 35 homophobic men and 29 non-homophobic men as measured by the Index of Homophobia scale. All the participants selected for the study described themselves as exclusively heterosexual both in terms of sexual arousal and experience.

Each participant was exposed to sexually explicit erotic stimuli consisting of heterosexual, male homosexual and lesbian videotapes (but not necessarily in that order). Their degree of sexual arousal was measured by penile plethysmography, which precisely measures and records male tumescence.

Men in both groups were aroused by about the same degree by the video depicting heterosexual sexual behavior and by the video showing two women engaged in sexual behavior. The only significant difference in degree of arousal between the two groups occurred when they viewed the video depicting male homosexual sex: 'The homophobic men showed a significant increase in penile circumference to the male homosexual video, but the control [non-homophobic] men did not.'

Broken down further, the measurements showed that while 66% of the non-homophobic group showed no significant tumescence while watching the male homosexual video, only 20% of the homophobic men showed little or no evidence of arousal. Similarly, while 24% of the non-homophobic men showed definite tumescence while watching the homosexual video, 54% of the homophobic men did.

When asked to give their own subjective assessment of the degree to which they were aroused by watching each of the three videos, men in both groups gave answers that tracked fairly closely with the results of the objective physiological measurement, with one exception: the homophobic men significantly underestimated their degree of arousal by the male homosexual video.

Do these findings mean, then, that homophobia in men is a reaction to repressed homosexual urges, as psychoanalysis theorizes?

While their findings are consistent with that theory, the authors note that there is another, competing theoretical explanation: anxiety. According to this theory, viewing the male homosexual videotape may have caused negative emotions (such as anxiety) in the homophobic men, but not in the non-homophobic men. As the authors note, 'anxiety has been shown to enhance arousal and erection,' and so it is also possible that 'a response to homosexual stimuli [in these men] is a function of the threat condition rather than sexual arousal per se. These competing notions can and should be evaluated by future research.'

Article: 'Is Homophobia Associated With Homosexual Arousal?' by Henry E. Adams, Ph.D., Lester W. Wright, Jr., Ph.D. and Bethany A. Lohr, University of Georgia, in Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol. 105, No. 3, pp 440-445.

 

[Shadownight_Keeper]

What is the purpose of homosexuality?

I think the purpose of nature and evolution to create homosexuals is not so much to help maintain a population as it is more to show that some times being heterosexual isn't all it's cracked up to be. Typically homosexuals are smarter, more creative, more adaptable to their environment, and tend to be more empathic to all that is around them. Yes there is a very small percentage, and even that percentage is inaccurate due to not every homosexual is "out of the closet".

The argument about homosexuals not wanting to have sex with the opposite sex doesn't hold water when it comes to reproduction. The thought that just because a man who sexually prefers other men, when faced with wanting a child would turn down a woman is absurd. Have you priced invitro lately? Adoptions for homosexual couples is rather difficult thanks to ignorance, hatred, and fear, so hmmmmm good old fashioned man and woman sex seems to be the logical option for many homosexuals. Think about it for a moment, a homosexual man and woman, share custody of a child they created together, it is a win/win situation for both and the families.

Keeper

 

[Tom Collins]

I think the purpose of nature and evolution to create homosexuals is not so much to help maintain a population as it is more to show that some times being heterosexual isn't all it's cracked up to be. Typically homosexuals are smarter, more creative, more adaptable to their environment, and tend to be more empathic to all that is around them. Yes there is a very small percentage, and even that percentage is inaccurate due to not every homosexual is "out of the closet".

The argument about homosexuals not wanting to have sex with the opposite sex doesn't hold water when it comes to reproduction. The thought that just because a man who sexually prefers other men, when faced with wanting a child would turn down a woman is absurd. Have you priced invitro lately? Adoptions for homosexual couples is rather difficult thanks to ignorance, hatred, and fear, so hmmmmm good old fashioned man and woman sex seems to be the logical option for many homosexuals. Think about it for a moment, a homosexual man and woman, share custody of a child they created together, it is a win/win situation for both and the families.

Keeper

Yes, I agree, Keeper, but not all gay men are capable of getting an erection when faced with the prospect of having intercorse with a woman. Just like not all staright men are capable of ass raping another man while in prison. It's not a case of mind over matter, man. Sometimes the matter don't pay no mind to what the mind thinks matters, eh?

I think that gay men and women getting together for procreative reasons is a very good idea, if they can make it work. Of course, worst come to worst, there's always the jack in a jar and pull out the turkey baister method.

 

[Liar]

Typically homosexuals are smarter, more creative, more adaptable to their environment, and tend to be more empathic to all that is around them.

Um, seriously, where'd you get that from? Clichés R Us? The only trait that I've found that differs gays from straights is...drumroll please...who they fuck.

 

[Liar]

Of course, worst come to worst, there's always the jack in a jar and pull out the turkey baister method.

Dayum, that's hot!

 

[Tom Collins]

Dayum, that's hot!

PMSL...it is? Why?

 

[Tom Collins]

Um, seriously, where'd you get that from? Clichés R Us? The only trait that I've found that differs gays from straights is...drumroll please...who they fuck.

Well, ok...I didn't agree with that part. I mean, just cuz you're gay doesn't make you immune to insensitivity or keep you from being a dickhead.

 

[Liar]

PMSL...it is? Why?

Probably just a me-and-kitchen-appliances thing.

 

[Tom Collins]

Probably just a me-and-kitchen-appliances thing.

*snicker* Yer such a perv, Liar. *big* Prolly why i like you.

 

[Liar]

*snicker* Yer such a perv, Liar. *big* Prolly why i like you.

Meet me in the alley at midnight. Bring your own spatula.

 

[Tom Collins]

Meet me in the alley at midnight. Bring your own spatula.

You bring a spatula and I'll bring a whisk.

 

[Liar]

You bring a spatula and I'll bring a whisk.

Now we're talking.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadownight_Keeper
Typically homosexuals are smarter, more creative, more adaptable to their environment, and tend to be more empathic to all that is around them.

Um, seriously, where'd you get that from? Clichés R Us? The only trait that I've found that differs gays from straights is...drumroll please...who they fuck.

I was wondering about that myself. I think you are just citing cliches and myths. The difference between gay and straight is sexual attraction.

 

[Tom Collins]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shadownight_Keeper
Typically homosexuals are smarter, more creative, more adaptable to their environment, and tend to be more empathic to all that is around them.




I was wondering about that myself. I think you are just citing cliches and myths. The difference between gay and straight is sexual attraction.

It's like the difference between people who do and don't like liver. And just about as relivant IMO.

 

[Matadore]

Lindsay’s research suggests that in humans the attraction for one person to another of the same sex can be seen as a continuum.

He was able to divide the population into six parts based upon the strength on an individual’s attraction to another human. The strongest (6) was finds others of the same sex exclusively attractive and feels no attraction to a member of the opposite sex.

His findings showed that at the other end of the scale (1) an individual was exclusively attracted to members of the opposite sex and felt no attraction to the same sex.

If his research is valid, then one possibility it suggest genetically is that the sexual attraction that one has for another is a factor of varying degrees because at least six different combinations of genes are involved.

Of course, environmental pressures may influence the difference in attraction strengths so we might look at that as well as other possible influences.

My thoughts have been considering this subject have been focused on those cultures that I am most familiar with, but broadening (NPI) the scope only slightly, Greeks of Sparta had families. They also had homosexual lovers. The society was military and many of the warriors were lovers. One result of this devotion to one’s fighting companion was the tendency to protect each other, train together, and support each other more closely than heterosexual fighting partners.

When 300 Spartans held 10,000 Persians and were defeated only after a traitor led the invading Persians through a secret route that allowed the Spartans to be flanked and even then only after they were defeated to the last man did the Persians prevail.

Upon seeing the dead Spartans on the battlefield lying in pairs with each pair surrounded by slain Persians did Darius the Persian King weep at their bravery. When one of his aides pointed out that these Greeks were homosexual lovers, Darius executed the man on the spot for slandering men who had exhibited such bravery.

Of course this historical footnote shatters the modern slander about “not wanting to share a foxhole with a faggot,” but it also suggests one species survival trait that homosexuality might bestow that would tend to preserve the trait within a population.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Lindsay’s research suggests that in humans the attraction for one person to another of the same sex can be seen as a continuum.

He was able to divide the population into six parts based upon the strength on an individual’s attraction to another human. The strongest (6) was finds others of the same sex exclusively attractive and feels no attraction to a member of the opposite sex.

His findings showed that at the other end of the scale (1) an individual was exclusively attracted to members of the opposite sex and felt no attraction to the same sex.

If his research is valid, then one possibility it suggest genetically is that the sexual attraction that one has for another is a factor of varying degrees because at least six different combinations of genes are involved.

Of course, environmental pressures may influence the difference in attraction strengths so we might look at that as well as other possible influences.

My thoughts have been considering this subject have been focused on those cultures that I am most familiar with, but broadening (NPI) the scope only slightly, Greeks of Sparta had families. They also had homosexual lovers. The society was military and many of the warriors were lovers. One result of this devotion to one’s fighting companion was the tendency to protect each other, train together, and support each other more closely than heterosexual fighting partners.

When 300 Spartans held 10,000 Persians and were defeated only after a traitor led the invading Persians through a secret route that allowed the Spartans to be flanked and even then only after they were defeated to the last man did the Persians prevail.

Upon seeing the dead Spartans on the battlefield lying in pairs with each pair surrounded by slain Persians did Darius the Persian King weep at their bravery. When one of his aides pointed out that these Greeks were homosexual lovers, Darius executed the man on the spot for slandering men who had exhibited such bravery.

Of course this historical footnote shatters the modern slander about “not wanting to share a foxhole with a faggot,” but it also suggests one species survival trait that homosexuality might bestow that would tend to preserve the trait within a population.

I have always believed this was the case although I might have described a wider continuum. Bi-sexuals, of course, would be right in the middle. It also gives a lot of credence to those who say that sexual preference is a matter of choice. There might be a mann who has been screwed over by his wife, and who happens to be on the low end of the fifth group. On a scale of one to 100, that would make him a 67. So he decides to give up on women, except an occasional hooker, and live as a homosexual. He has made a choice to be gay. Or, there might be a young man who is on the high end of the second group. Because of familial and societal pressure, he might suppress his gay side, get married and never think about sex with men. He has also chosen his sexual orientation.

Presumably, the equivalent would be true for women.

 

[Tom Collins]

I have always believed this was the case although I might have described a wider continuum. Bi-sexuals, of course, would be right in the middle. It also gives a lot of credence to those who say that sexual preference is a matter of choice. There might be a mann who has been screwed over by his wife, and who happens to be on the low end of the fifth group. On a scale of one to 100, that would make him a 67. So he decides to give up on women, except an occasional hooker, and live as a homosexual. He has made a choice to be gay. Or, there might be a young man who is on the high end of the second group. Because of familial and societal pressure, he might suppress his gay side, get married and never think about sex with men. He has also chosen his sexual orientation.

Presumably, the equivalent would be true for women.

I understand what you're thinking here, Box, but I think you're looking at it wrong. In situations like that they aren't "choosing their sexual orientation". The guy who got screwed over is choosing to not be with women any more and the boy is choosing to ignore desires. That doesn't make the first gay anymore than it makes the second straight they both are, and will always be, Bisexual. What they've done is to choose how they will be sexually active. They both still have desires for the gender that they're rejecting, they simply have chosen to repress/ignore those desires.

 

[Shadownight_Keeper]

No myth, no cliche

Stating a fact. Tell me, can you live your life pretending to be something you're not every day, so effectively as to fool those closest to you? I don't mean lying, I mean going against your very nature. To do so, one must be smarter, more in touch with the little things that are generally overlooked, and must adapt to an array of changes from person to person and situation to situation without fail. For to fail just once, could mean your very life. Not all homosexuals do this, but many do and have too in order to survive. For the record I'm not a homosexual, I'm actually a transsexual and for me if I make one mistake in my every day life, some hate mongers or homophobic would not hesitate one second to end my life. Therefore each day when I walk out my front door, I go against my nature. I am smarter, more creative, and more adaptable, no myth, no cliché because evolution teaches us, that it is survival of the fittest, and for me to survive, I must be all that and more or I'll no long exist.

"Studies of brains have taught us that people with higher IQs do not have larger brains. Thanks to brain imaging technology, we can now see that the difference may be in the way the brain develops," said A. Zerhouni, M.D.

By Michael Bailey and Richard Pillard Science is rapidly converging on the conclusion that sexual orientation is innate. It has found that homosexuals often act differently from heterosexuals in early childhood, before they have even heard of sex. A recent study by Simon LeVay, a neurobiologist at the Salk Institute, reported a difference in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that develops at a young age, between homosexual and heterosexual men.

As for difference between gay and straight being just sexual attraction, it is more than that. I can find the beauty in both sexes, though I am attracted to one sex, however, because that sex is the same as my physical sex does not define me it doesn‘t make me who I am so to speak. Who and what I am on the inside is what drives my desires, my attractions, it is my make up.

Keeper

 

[Boxlicker101]

I understand what you're thinking here, Box, but I think you're looking at it wrong. In situations like that they aren't "choosing their sexual orientation". The guy who got screwed over is choosing to not be with women any more and the boy is choosing to ignore desires. That doesn't make the first gay anymore than it makes the second straight they both are, and will always be, Bisexual. What they've done is to choose how they will be sexually active. They both still have desires for the gender that they're rejecting, they simply have chosen to repress/ignore those desires.

This is true but what I am saying, citing the homophobes I referenced, is that they have chosen their own lifestyle.

 

[Tom Collins]

This is true but what I am saying, citing the homophobes I referenced, is that they have chosen their own lifestyle.

He has also chosen his sexual orientation.

You didn't say lifestyle, you said sexual orientation. Not the same thing at all, Boxy.

 

[Tom Collins]

Stating a fact. Tell me, can you live your life pretending to be something you're not every day, so effectively as to fool those closest to you? I don't mean lying, I mean going against your very nature. To do so, one must be smarter, more in touch with the little things that are generally overlooked, and must adapt to an array of changes from person to person and situation to situation without fail. For to fail just once, could mean your very life. Not all homosexuals do this, but many do and have too in order to survive. For the record I'm not a homosexual, I'm actually a transsexual and for me if I make one mistake in my every day life, some hate mongers or homophobic would not hesitate one second to end my life. Therefore each day when I walk out my front door, I go against my nature. I am smarter, more creative, and more adaptable, no myth, no cliché because evolution teaches us, that it is survival of the fittest, and for me to survive, I must be all that and more or I'll no long exist.

"Studies of brains have taught us that people with higher IQs do not have larger brains. Thanks to brain imaging technology, we can now see that the difference may be in the way the brain develops," said A. Zerhouni, M.D.

By Michael Bailey and Richard Pillard Science is rapidly converging on the conclusion that sexual orientation is innate. It has found that homosexuals often act differently from heterosexuals in early childhood, before they have even heard of sex. A recent study by Simon LeVay, a neurobiologist at the Salk Institute, reported a difference in the hypothalamus, a part of the brain that develops at a young age, between homosexual and heterosexual men.

As for difference between gay and straight being just sexual attraction, it is more than that. I can find the beauty in both sexes, though I am attracted to one sex, however, because that sex is the same as my physical sex does not define me it doesn‘t make me who I am so to speak. Who and what I am on the inside is what drives my desires, my attractions, it is my make up.

Keeper

This is a broad generalization that doesn't hold true for all, or even most. Saying this would be the same as saying that all serial killers are hyper intelligent, observant of fine details, and good at developing and carrying out plans that allow them to ellude capture. This simply isn't true for all or even most of them...just for the ones who don't get caught.

While what you've said might be, and probably is, true for you you can't make the mistake of generalizing your experiences and saying that's how it is for everyone like you.

30% of the population of the town that I live in is either gay or bi(including myself, I might add) and I find them to be like anyone else.

If you had some sort of I.Q. Test study that you could site I might be more inclined to believe you, but as it is all I see is a personal opinion. *shrug*

 

[Boxlicker101]

You didn't say lifestyle, you said sexual orientation. Not the same thing at all, Boxy.

You're right. I should have said lifestyle.

 

[Shadownight_Keeper]

I never said all, said typically and many. Stating about my experience as just reference, I did not mean to encompass all. I can't find the site that had the information about the intelligence levels this evening. What I read if I remember correctly was that homosexuals are generally (not all) 1 deviant (think that is the right word) standard above normal intelligence. I've met some pretty stupid smart people before, just as I've met some really smart dumb folks. I personally base intelligence level on the task that is before the individual.

Tom, you and Box have raised some very interesting points to each side. My two cents is that a person who denies their natural attraction for what ever reason and decides to pursue the same or opposite sex doesn't make that person suddenly straight or gay (a gay person going for a heterosexual relationship and a straight person going for a homosexual relationship), to me, that person is still either straight or gay but is living against their nature.

Keeper