Societal attitudes toward homosexuality: Difference between revisions

Societal attitudes towards homosexuality have varied over the centuries, usually exhibiting a combination of admiration and disapproval depending on the form of the relations.

73% of the general public in the United States in 2001 knew someone who is gay, lesbian, or bisexual according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. This is up from 24% in 1983, 43% in 1993, 55% in 1998, and 62% in 2000. The percentage of the general public who say there is more acceptance of LGB people in 2001 than before was 64%. Acceptance was measured on many different levels - 87% of the general public would shop at a store owned by someone who is gay or lesbian all the way down to 46% of the general public would attend a church or synagogue where a minister or rabbi is openly gay or lesbian. 51% of the general public think that "homosexual behavior" is morally wrong. When broken down by gender, males are more likely to think it is wrong and people over 65 years old are more likely to think it is wrong. Among people who don't know someone who is LGB, 61% think the behavior is wrong. Broken down by religion, 60% of evangelical christians think that it is wrong, whereas 11% with no religious affiliation are against it. 57% of the general public think that gays and lesbians experience a lot of prejudice and discrimination, making it the group believed to experience the most prejudice and discrimination. (African Americans come in second at 42%).[1]

In terms of support of public policies, according to the same 2001 study, 76% of the general public think that there should be laws to protect GL people from job discrimination, 74% from housing discrimination, 73% for inheritance rights, 70% support health and other employee benefits for domestic partners, 68% support social security benefits, and 56% support GL people openly serving in the military. 73% favor sexual orientation being included in the hate crimes statutes. 39% support same-sex marriage, while 47% support civil unions, and 46% support adoption rights.

A separate study shows that, in the United States, the younger generation more supportive of gay rights than average. For example, a 2001 Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 18-24 year olds strongly support gay rights.

More recent polling data, however, shows a more marked trend among Americans in general toward rejection of homosexual-specific legal novelties, especially homosexual marriage. A poll commissioned by CNN/USA Today Gallup in 2005 asked whether respondents thought same-sex marriages should be recognized by the law as valid and come with the same rights as traditional marriages. 68% said no, while 28% said yes [2]. In addition, 11 states rejected homosexual marriage in ballot initiatives during the 2004 elections.

In some cultures, such as Ancient Greece and pre-modern Japan, pederastic practices were accepted and common. The Bedamini people of New Guinea believe that pederastic activities promote growth throughout nature, while excessive heterosexual activities lead to decay in nature.

In other cultures (e.g Fundamentalist Christian or Muslim), certain forms of same-sex behavior have been punished with torture and death.

In the east, attitudes have changed radically in the past hundred and fifty years, swinging from complete acceptance to an antagonism to acceptance again. The Chinese Psychiatrists’ Association removed homosexuality from the list of mental illnesses in April 2001. However, as scriptwriter and teacher Cui Zi’en, one of the few openly gay intellectuals in today's China, points out that, in his country, it is still seen as a psychological disorder. "In the West, it’s frowned on to criticize homosexuals and even more to make them feel different," says Cui Zi’en, contrasting it with Chinese society which, "is changing, but there’ll always be people who’ll feel disgust."

In many Western countries, same-sex relationships are accorded some legal protections. Many governments have established formal structures for confirming legal relationships (either as marriage or civil unions) between couples of the same sex.

In the United States, several judicial bodies have attempted to create a right to homosexual marriage based on their interpretations of state constitutions. To date, this approach has proven successful only in Massachusetts where homosexual marriage has been declared legal. In many other states, the notion of homosexual marriage has been put before the voters and rejected. In 2004, eleven states had referendum initiatives banning homosexual marriage on their ballots. The initiatives passed in all (Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Utah and Oregon).

In many cultures, homosexuality is still considered unnatural, a perversion and has been outlawed (see sodomy law, public order crime). In some Muslim nations, it remains a capital crime.

See also: Homosexuality laws of the world

Some religious groups view homosexuality to be a sin. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, homosexual behavior is "intrisically disordered" and "contrary to natural law". As such, homosexual acts can be approved "under no circumstances." The Catholic Church recognizes that the numbers of people with homosexual tendencies is not negligible and urges Catholics to eschew unjust discrimination. However, the Church also calls upon individuals inclined toward homosexuality to live lives of chastity. By way of counterpoint, John Boswell argued that church stance has varied over time, and that during several periods in European Christian history homosexuality was not repressed and was even celebrated, as with heterosexuality. See the article on Religion and homosexuality for a discussion of how homosexuality is viewed in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and in neo-pagan religions.

On the other hand, several religious establishments welcome homosexual individuals, either on a footing of equality with heterosexuals (such as the Unitarian Universalist congregation or the Anglican congregation in North America) or even according them special status as possessing enhanced spiritual abilities (as a few Native American religions do).

Acceptance or condemnation of homosexual behavior has led to strife within many religions denominations. In 2003, Gene Robinson was made a bishop of the Episcopal Church. His elevation has led to a rift in the Anglican communion which hovers on the brink of schism as a result of the homosexual question.

Also see Homosexuality and morality.

Violence against homosexuals remains common; the experience of gays during the Holocaust is an egregious case.

In certain countries and regions which have accepted homosexuality, speech codes have been enacted which preclude the open criticism of homosexuals or homosexual behavior. Under the guise of anti-hate crimes legislation which is supposed to protect vulnerable minority groups, such laws have led to the arrest of individuals who were perceived to have violated them. Notable cases include Pastor Ake Green of Sweden who was sentenced to a month in prison for condemning homosexual behavior in a sermon. His conviction was later overturned, but not before reaching the Swedish Supreme Court. Another case involved Michael Marcavage and his evangelical Christian group, Repent America, members of which were arrested while protesting a gay pride event in Philadelphia in October of 2004. Charged with eight crimes, including three felonies under hate-crimes statutes, the group faced 47 years in jail and $90,000 in fines before the charges were summarily dismissed by a Philadelphia judge.

• Gay bashing
• Anti-gay slogans

Attitudes toward homosexual activity in the ancient Greece almost always took the form of older men grooming young boys as sex partners, also known as ephebophilia. This behavior was pervasive throughout much of ancient Greek society. In certain cities like Sparta, young boys were subjected to the sexual advances of older men as a military right of passage. Plato believed that this form of relationship was the mark of an enlightened society, while only barbarians condemned it. Once the boy reached a certain age, however, he was expected to change his orientation and adopt the behavior of a husband and father.

Throughout most of the history of ancient Israel, homosexual activity was condemned outright as an "abomination" and Mosaic Law demanded the death penalty for those men who "lie with a man as with a woman." Leviticus 20:13

Roman attitudes toward homosexuality varied over the centuries. In the early days of the Roman Republic, ephebophilic homosexuality was considered a degenerate Greek practice. As Greek attitudes gradually became accepted in Rome during the late Republic and early Empire, however, a form of homosexual behavior emerged that was quite different from the ephebophilic Greek form. As men, particularly the pater familias, weilded complete authority in Roman society, the Roman experience of homosexual behavior is often categorized by master/slave-style domination. Indeed, at the height of the Roman Empire the Lex Scatinia was promulgated which effectively banned pederasty with free born boys and girls, whether consensual or not, male prostitution, and sexual passivity[3]. However, this law was only enforced with regard to the free born. Slaves could still be subject to their masters' whims.

By the time the empire had been firmly established, many forms of sexual expression were tolerated. Though perhaps not the originator of the practice, the emperor Nero appears to have been the first Roman emperor to have undergone a homosexual marriage ceremony which was described as follows by the historian Suetonius: "He castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his house attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife. This Sporus, decked out with the finery of the empresses and riding in a litter, he took with him to the assizes and marts of Greece, and later at Rome through the Street of the Images, fondly kissing him from time to time"[4].

From its earliest days, Christianity followed the strict Hebrew tradition of condemnation for all forms of deviant sexuality, including homosexual activity. The teachings of Jesus Christ encouraged a turning away from and forgiveness of sin, including those sins of sexual impurity. Jesus was known as a defender of those whose sexual sins were condemned by the Pharisees. At the same time, Jesus strongly upheld the Mosaic Law and urged those whose sexual sins were forgiven to, "go, and sin no more" John 8:3-11.

Saint Paul was even more explicit in his condemnation of sinful behavior, including homosexual acts, saying, "Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God" 1 Corinthians 6:9-10.

After the emperor Constantine ended the persecution of Christians throughout the Roman Empire and made Christianity the official state religion in the 4th century, Christian attitudes toward sexual behavior were soon incorporated into Roman Law. In the year 528, the emperor Justinian I, responding to an outbreak of homosexual pederasty among the Christian clergy, issued a law which made castration the punishment for homosexual behavior[5].

In the 1950s in the United States, homosexuality was taboo. Senator Joseph McCarthy used accusations of homosexuality as a smear tactic in his anti-Communist crusade.

Beginning in the 20th century, Gay rights movements, as part of the broader civil rights movements, have led to changes in social acceptance and in the media portrayal of homosexuality. The legalization of same-sex marriage and non-gender-specific civil unions is one of the major goals of gay rights activism. (See Category:LGBT civil rights.)

Attitudes of Western societies regarding homosexuality have led to a greater acceptance of gay men and women into both secular and religious institutions starting in the latter part of the 20th Century.

In 1973, the (US) American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. While some criticized this as a political decision unsupported by any advances in psychiatric research, the decision was supported by a majority of the membership. Nonetheless, many religious groups and other advocates, like National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), believe that they can heal or cure homosexuality through reparative therapy. Many Western health and mental health professional organizations have concluded that this therapy is ineffective, unnecessary, and potentially harmful and that sexual orientation is unchangeable. Most notable for his dissent from this opinion is Dr. Robert Spitzer. An advocate of the removal of homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Spitzer produced a 2001 study on reparative therapy published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior in 2003. Spitzer's study concluded that reparative therapy, "is sometimes successful" and there was no evidence of harm. "To the contrary," Spitzer said, his subjects, "reported that it was helpful in a variety of ways beyond changing sexual orientation itself." Spitzer also called on the American Psychiatric Association to stop applying a double standard in its discouragement of reorientation therapy, while actively encouraging gay-affirmative therapy to confirm and solidify a gay identity.[6]

Spitzer's study was later criticized for its methods. In his study, 66 percent of his sample were referrals from advocates of reparative therapy and 78 percent of his sample spoke favorably of reparative therapy themselves. The study relied on 45-minute self-reported telephone interviews with the participants that couldn't be checked for reliability and were open to the Social desirability bias that may result from many participants being connected with reparative therapy advocates. In addition, only 40% of his sample reported being exclusively attracted to same-sex adults before doing the therapy, while the rest reported being bisexual. Spitzer, however, said the study may not apply to the LGBT population at large. He conceded that the number of people who could convert from homosexual to heterosexual orientation was likely to be "pretty low" and that most of the participants in his study were "unusually religious."[7]

Another study on reparative therapy was done in 2001 by Dr. Ariel Shidlo and Dr. Michael Schroeder. Their study also relied on a participants connected with reparative therapy advocates in addition to recruitments from the Internet. Their study found that 88% of participants failed to change their sexual orientation and 3% reported changing their orientation to heterosexual. The remainder reported being celibate or sexually confused. Schroeder said many of the participlants who failed felt a sense of shame. Many had gone through reparative therapy programs over the course of many years.[8]

In many non-Western countries, homosexual orientation is still considered to be a mental disorder and illness.

In Western culture, gay men are often stereotyped as effeminate or sometimes as hypermasculinized (see homomasculinity). The severely homophobic sides of these stereotypes are the effete man in a position of moral authority (such as the pedophile priest or boy scout leader), and the muscle-bound prison rapist.

Lesbians are often stereotyped as being overly masculine or Butch and Femme. Bisexuals are often stereotyped as promiscuous, manipulative, and insincere.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as takes place in the Bible is often attributed to homosexuality, but this is disputed.

Since the middle ages, sodomites were blamed for "bringing down the wrath of God" upon the land, and their pleasures blamed for the periodic epidemics of disease which decimated the population. This "pollution" was thought to be cleansed by fire, as a result of which countless individuals were burned at the stake or run through with white-hot iron rods.

Since the end of the 1980's similar accusations have been made, inspired by the AIDS epidemic. In the years since, the epidemic has spread and now has many more heterosexual victims than homosexual. Much more is also known about the source of the syndrome (HIV) and its means of transmission, which does tend to reduce finger-pointing.

Other modern American examples:

• Jerry Falwell made remarks interpreted as blaming "pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way" for the September 11th attacks, but later apologized for his remarks. (Pat Robertson was also participating in the broadcast.)
• Baptist Minister Fred Phelps blames homosexuals for September 11th and his sect blames the Indian Ocean tsunami of December, 2004 on American and Swedish sodomites and fornicators in Thailand [9]. Almost no religious bodies support Phelps, who was a delegate for Albert Gore at the Democratic National Convention in 1988 and is viewed by at least one pro-traditional family group as an agent provocateur for the gay rights movement[10].

Relations between adults and youths, both male and female, were practiced historically dating back to at least antiquity; see Lucian's Erotes.

This association has continued into contemporary times. Some people fear exposing their children to homosexuals in unsupervised settings, lest they be molested, raped, or recruited to be homosexuals themselves.

Many studies have shown that homosexuals are considerably more apt to involve themselves sexually with the underage. [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]

The publicity surrounding the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal, which included many cases of same-sex child abuse, has heightened these concerns. One organization encouraging such a view is can be found here: [22]. According to a study commissioned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, under the auspices of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an all-lay review board headed by Illinois Appellate Court Justice Anne M. Burke, "81% of the reported victims of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy were boys." The review board went on to conclude that, "the crisis was characterized by homosexual behavior," and in light of this, "the current crisis cannot be addressed without consideration of issues related to homosexuality." One of John Jay's researchers, Louis Schlesinger, argued, however, that the main problem was pedophilia or ephebophilia, not sexual orientation and said that some men who are married to adult women are attracted to adolescent males.[23]

Although there have been no large-scale studies, small studies by Dr. Carole Jenny, Dr. A.W. Richard Sipe, and others have not found evidence that homosexuals are more likely to molest childen than heterosexuals.[24][25] One study by researcher Dr. Kurt Freund suggested a higher occurrence of pedophilia among homosexuals, but didn't indicate a greater likelihood to molest children.[26]

Some researchers, like Johns Hopkins University psychiatrist Dr. Frederick Berlin, say it's flawed to assume that men who molest young boys are attracted to adult men and say that attaction to children is a separate orientation of its own. Others, like psychotherapist Dr. A.W. Richard Sipe, also argue that the sexual deprivation that occurs in the priesthood could lead one to turn to children and that boys are more accessible to priests and other male authority figures than girls.[27] A study by Dr. A. Nicholas Groth found that nearly half of the child sex offenders in his small sample were exclusively attracted to children. The other half regressed to children after finding trouble in adult relationships. No one in his sample was primarily attracted to same-sex adults.[28]

The question of whether it is possible to "recruit" children into a homosexual orientation is a matter of sharp debate; see Environment, choice, and sexual orientation.

• Gay agenda
• Homophobia