!!!!!1000TH POST!!!!!
wow this thread is far more interesting than i thought it would be.
So i've been thinking a lot about sexuality recently as a good friend of mine, whom i was at school with for 10 years, came out last summer (/claim), and with all the media attention recently. The funny thing was i was away in new zealand when it happened and i didn't know it had happened and there was quite a funny, awkward chat haha.
Now being from the UK i'm not so hot on US politics, but i would consider myself pretty conservative/right wing, however a strong atheist. What i don't get is why your political views are so connected with your religious views in the states! I fully support state gay marriage, though i do not believe you can force a religion to adopt gay marriage.
HERE'S THE CONTROVERSIAL BIT (please read, i know it is long):
So i used to think that homosexuality must be genetic, after all it is the view that most gay people i know support, after all they would probably have the best idea. I think it is 'natural', homosexuality is seen in many species and in our own has been documented for nearly all of written history. However the more I think about it with logical argument it seems to me we are not born with a fixed sexuality, but it still isn't really a choice either, needless to say though I feel both the feelings of love and lust whether homosexual or heterosexual should be celebrated equally.
My theory is that when we don't really have any sexual orientation until the ages of 12 or so. When we start to have sexual feelings as we go through puberty are brain starts to associate things as having a sexual nature and causes the hormones which make us feel aroused to be released. At this stage, as boys will definitely know, we can get horny at the slightest of things, but the brain slowly forms a picture of what we find more sexually arousing, and stimulation of the senses at particular times (trying to keep this serious!) 'rewards' the brain and reinforces subconsciously sexual orientation if you like.
As a society heterosexuality is the norm, so arousing thoughts of the same sex, are often consciously discarded. Added to this there is lots of advertisement especially in the modern world, with erotic images of the opposite sex. There is also the general view that homosexuality isn't a choice, and in you early teens there is a strong desire desire to conform to what is considered as good or bad. So therefore in the majority people tend to shift toward hetersexual orientation. However a minority hold onto the thoughts of the same sex either because they don't care or they feel different. (this is the ambiguous bit, that i need to think more about and is hard to phrase without hurting peoples feelings).
By mid teens we have presumed our sexuality: straight, gay or bisexual. We begin to have our first sexual experiences and this further reinforces what our brain associates as sexually attractive. We get less horny so thoughts outside what we concern to be arousing get less and less. And by late teens this is pretty set in stone.
Can we change our sexuality? I believe so, it would not be easy though. We would have to rewrite what our brain associates with sexually.
If it is possible should gay people change their sexuality? If they really want to maybe. But as I stated earlier I feel neither homosexual or heterosexual relationships or feelings are superior to one another, and i feel that people shouldn't really need to change their sexuality.
Thanks for reading, i welcome any criticism or argument. Might open this as a separate thread, thoughts?
SPARKNOTES: -i support gay marriage
-imo homosexual and heterosexual relationships have equal value
-there is no conducive evidence to suggest sexuality is genetic
-imo sexuality is not genetic but neither is it really a choice, it is governed by our sexual experiences and thoughts, especially during puberty
