I don't believe in homosexuality

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Ok, every time I try and say this to people nobody seems to understand/agree with it, but I'm going to attempt to explain this. I don't believe that homosexuality exists, I don't believe that we can put everyone into completely exclusive categories of "straight" and "gay" (with a tiny percentage of bisexuals in the middle). Human beings are complex and the idea of absolute categories when it comes to something that is exceptionally affected by situational factors as much as human preferences are (in this case sexual preference) I find it utterly impossible that we think we can put everyone into categories of 100% straight and 100% gay. Evidence for that comes from firstly, the huge increase in homosexual behaviour in certain situations - for example in male only prisons. However, also, you have to consider how utterly ridiculous this kind of system would be with other human preferences. Using the same logic with respects to food preference for example would be ridiculous - putting everyone into completley exclusive categories of "tomato likers" and "tomato haters" for example and using the same logic we would have to say that if you have ever eaten a tomato then you are automatically a tomato liker for life. That (I hope) will sound absurd to everyone who reads this, yet this is exactly what we do with sexual preferences - everyone is presumed straight from birth and as soon as someone shows any interest in the same sex they are automatically 100% gay (excluding bisexuals which are not part of the main issue here). This is simply a process of compartmentalisation as far as I'm concerned and the only purpose of doing this is to declare one set of behaviour "homosexuality" as deviant so that it can be discriminated against. Why is it that people have to "come out" and declare themselves "gay" whenever their sexual preference is to mate with someone of the same sex? All human beings have individual preferences about all things - including sexuality - and your preferences in all other areas say nothing about the person you are - how for example could it be argued that liking turnips says anything about your personality? Consequently I don't believe that the idea that "gay men are always camp" is anything more than the result of socialisation - and if you disagree with that I'll point you in the direction of the ancient greeks who conceived of sexuality in exactly the same way that I am proposing we conceive of it as (though for different reasons - the ancient greeks only believed in one sex) where everyone acted in a manner that would suggest they were bisexual today, just choosing whichever sexual partners they liked male or female, yet there was not some incredible outbreak of "campness" their sexual preferences said absolutely nothing about what type of person they were. Now I hope that made sense to anyone who took the time to read it, my basic point is that I don't see why we put people into two categories of "straight" and "gay", these categories have very little to do with actual reality and their only possible use is to discriminate against one group.

Well put. And if you read some posts on here, you'll find that a lot of people, myself included, think the same thing as you've just described.

i agreebut i hate tomatos

i never thought of it that way. but it quite interesting. i agree

That is extremely interesting. Someone not too long ago made a point to me saying, "If you really think about, everyone is bisexual to some extent. No one's really straight or gay." I don't know, I stand by that fact, as I tend to seem bisexual, especially since I'm not sure of my sexual preference yet at all.

This is not really a new idea. In fact, it was first made popular by the infamous Kinsey report in 1948, "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male." Kinsey used a single-blind survey of sexual questions about practices and behaviors and then put the participants on a scale of sexuality, rather than blandly coding them straight or gay. Almost no one was entirely straight or entirely gay, most people ranged somewhere near the middle. You can read the Wikipedia entry on Kinsey here.They made a movie about it (IMDB listing).

Obviously this isn't an idea I've just came up with on the spot, however I'm not basing this primarily on Kinsey, this is essentially Michel Foucault's contribution to queer theory. There have been many other studies done on the idea that all humans are bisexual, however the main problem I have with some scale along which everyone lies - where people are "27% gay" or whatever - is that it still ignores the impact of situational factors on sexual preferences by saying that sexual preferences are still some absolute static phenomena that remain the same throughout a person's lifetime. Furthermore, Kinsey's theories are basically just applying the principles of Non-Aristotelian logic to sexual preference. Queer Theory on the other hand is something entirely different - it questions why we have the categories at all, not that everyone falls somewhere in between the two categories. To go back to my food example, it's still equally ridiculous if we grade how much people like tomatoes and assign this percentage as some absolute static unchanging thing that isn't affected by situational factors - for example you would expect the person's preference for eating a tomato to be significantly lessened if they were forced to eat 50 tomatoes every day for a whole year, yet increased greatly if they had been starving for a year. Furthermore even if you could grade people's food preferences in this way what on earth would be the point in doing so?

I totally agree with the original post... Don't know why people insist on boxing up everyone into catergories... I suppose it makes some people feel better to be able to say "He's gay" (perhaps for the people who feel they need to stay away or be on the look out through fear or 'homophobia' I'm sorta crap at explaining myself... But the was I look at it is this... It's more of in the head as opposed to between the legs...For me personally. I mean I could pretty much fuck anything, but could never have a 'relationship' in the respect of boyfriend/girlfriend with a woman although when I was younger (12y/o) I got obbsessed with my best friend- who was a girl. Now I can't really see how, but I guess it proves that your feelings can't really be put into one box with a label on...

I hate pure tomatoes, but I like tomatoes when used in things. Does that make me bisexual?

I am only moderately familiar with Foucault... he doesn't really fit into my areas of interest. Or at least, his worldview doesn't. As I recall, he was primarily a philosopher and so related everything in philosophical language. I have always found it difficult to wade through proofs.

Right on! I dont belive in it either. It is wrong disgusting, and my grandfather owns a chapel and thank god I would never marry a gay couple. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

You are definitely a bigot. And you're a moron, because you don't understand what the thread is about. Go read the first post.

you and your grandfather have some issues, i suggest you take control of your own life cartman 82

I think that most people, if they're able to think about the topic rationally, accept that the vast majority of human beings are some mix of heterosexual and homosexual.Also, while situations can change someone's actions (e.g. a 'straight' male may willingly have sex with another male while locked up in prison for several years) I don't think it will necessarily change someone's underlying sexuality and I do think that most people are more straight or more gay rather than being exactly a 50/50 mix.One of the most fascinating reports I've ever read which was loosely related to this topic is a report that's apparently published every year (can't remember the name of the group which publishes it unfortunately and only came across it once, in 1999) which stated that in 1999, about 44,000 men in the United Kingdom and about 172,000 men in the United States suddenly realised that their sexuality was the opposite of that which they had believed previously, in some cases for many decades. In one instance, a 61 year old man, who had been married for more than 40 years and had 4 children, left his wife to set up home with his 55 year old male lover. He claims that he had never before had any gay tendencies or experiences.

Interesting argument. The 6 million or so homosexuals ( estimated 10% of the world's population ) may disagree though.

i just want to say that determining a person gay or straight really is up to an individual's knowledge....some guys have more girl hermones, so they can't help but look/act/sound like a girl, even they r not gay... some guys like to be fuck in the ass and yet they don't like to be love my another guy (just for fucking pleause)... some guys they love to fuck in the ass and would only let themseleves be loved and loved another guy...so it really depends on the individual....

In reply to: Also, while situations can change someone's actions (e.g. a 'straight' male may willingly have sex with another male while locked up in prison for several years) I don't think it will necessarily change someone's underlying sexuality and I do think that most people are more straight or more gay rather than being exactly a 50/50 mix. I believe you have to accept that situational factors can change a person's "underlying sexuality" unless you argue that sexuality is purely a result of genetics (which I certainly don't believe). If sexuality is the result of both genetics and environmental factors (virtually everyone agrees that all human behaviour stems from both genetics and environment nowadays - see the cultural determinism vs biological determinism arguments of the early twentieth century) then you're accepting that environmental factors are involved in sexuality and therefore they must have a continuous involvement throughout the entire duration of a person's life. This is another argument against the idea of absolute 100% straight/gay categories - that I personally believe sexual preference is not some static thing you're born with that stays the same for your entire lifetime, but something that alters throughout your life. As far as I'm concerned I can't conceive of a credible system (unless you say that sexuality stems entirely from genetics - which I don't find credible) where this wouldn't be the case.

You need to grow the fuck up and learn to think for yourself.What is so bad about gays and lesbians? They are folks like you and I.

Ok I really don't get that. Why does everyone on this board need to be critisized for their business. If you're gay, you're gay, if you're straight, you're straight, if you prefer chocolate over vanilla then eat the chocolate. That's peoples business, don't ridicule them for what they do with their life. That should be counted in my community service.

Please don't criticise me too harshly for anything I say here - I've been in the pub with a group pf friends (4 gay, 7 not) for the past 4 hours and so I'm very drunk.I think tyhat one's sexuality is a mixture of both environment and nature (see the various nature/nurture arguments of the past 20 years) and that declaring a person to be gay simply because they may be slightly effeminate (I'm slightly effeminate and I read a lot but not gay) is total bullshit. Despite the fact that I don't consider myself to be gay, when I was 14 I engaged in various minor gay sex acts and as a rugby player I've witnessed (though never [articipated in) various 'gay' activiries over the past 6 years or so, most of which I think are hilarious and yes, I've occasionally gotten a boner from watching them.Also, I do think every individual has an 'underlying' sexuality. As an example, despite the fact that my mate Christopher is a happily married macho man with a baby on the way, I (and many of my friends) consider that Christopher is probably gay. We don't have a problem with this. Even if he's gay, he's still a friend of ours. But being from a little mining village in the north of Englasnd, being gay isn't an option for him. If he was ever shown to be gay, his mother and father might well disown him and his youngest brother would probably beat him up.Chris is 'situationally' heterosexual.I on the other hand have only ever had 2 girlfriends, have no girlfriend at the moment and do not leer at every attractive bird that passes by...yet none of the people who know me has ever seriously considered for one second that I might be gay even though I am not particularly macho.However I do work in a fairly macho job and am therefore 'situationally' heterosexual despite my love for books and poetry If I've made a total cock-up of this post then please accept my apologies - I am VERY drunk.