Mare may be all that and a bag of chips. And I may be the biggest a-hole on earth. But we're not talking about personalities [though you DO keep trying..lol..], we're talking about an issue. Specifically, whether or not our society should condone the marriage of homosexuals. In case you get confused, refer back to the title of this thread.
"
California Proposition 8"
The issue that stands before our society is one that cannot be separated from the word "condoned". When a group of people, humans, human primates, social-learning primates, a tribe, gathering, collective or community of people get together and officially condone something, that something has an impact on their society from that point on.
Take that as a given.
The youth in those communities thereafter take the thing condoned as part of the reality they should also condone and promote. Promote. Keep that word in mind...
Human youths, more than any other way, learn by example, by "monkey see, monkey do". I've stated that above.
***
Paralleling now for just a minute: experts and business people in the ranching and pet artificial-insemination
industries, know that sexuality can be molded at the critical age of puberty. That animals normally compelled to mount members of the opposite gender, can be trained to only prefer a dummy mount or other members of the same gender, as is usual with bulls mounting steers or other bulls for collection. These animals are mammals, with the exception of avian species.
We are mammals.
**
Paralleling again. Item 10 in
The Ten Reasons Gays Chase Straights [a title which in itself sends up a red flag as to gays attempting to normalize their unions via society condoning it] the author tells of the woes that many gays feel: that there aren't enough of their numbers. In one or two clever paragraphs, he at once denounces gays trying to recruit, but also then leaves off with the question of whether or not it would be a good idea?
That's gay code for: "We cannot look like that's what we're doing, but go out and go for it."
**
To summarize: we have a community of deviant sexuals who [woefully] feel they are in minority, that 'the pickins are slim' who are well-aware of or at least strongly suspect that homosexuality is at least in part learned behavior, who are seeking legitimate status in society to become part of the fabric of what is condoned, knowing that youth will imitate those edicts and promote them also.
People who are already gay or have friends they have a vested interest in maintaining the relationship, or family members who are gay will cry foul. Those of us who can rise above the pressure may be able to take a look at what is really going on with them seeking to rise over and above their already legal ability to form domestic partnerships and instead
want to retool the paramount example, marriage, of a
condoned implied sexual relationship between two people.
ie: they want the final stamp of legitimacy. They want society as a whole to step up and say "Yes, we want to model as an example to youth that humping someone of the same gender is a perfectly normal behavior." Even when it is not perfectly normal sexual behavior, given that sex's original and pure
biological purpose was/is for procreation between males and females.
Anything can be tweaked or bastardized in the interest of pleasure seeking and escape from boredom. Humans are great at this. Or in the interest of some maniacal fantasy: as was the case with Hitler. We tend to get carried away. A lot. And we often don't know when to stop. That's why I brought up NAMBLA. That's the perfect example of what can happen once you cross the line from normal function to tweak, all in the interest of pleasure-seeking.
Here are some studies about homosexuality for your perusal. Just some random studies that aren't necessarily exhaustive, but informative nevertheless.
In 1962, a psychoanalyst Bieber (1962) observed 100 male homosexuals
that he was seeing for psychoanalytic treatment. He believed, based on
Freud, that certain characteristics of parents could produce homosexual
children. He reported that all of the male homosexuals he treated had
a hostile, detached father and a close, dominating mother.
Bieber's study is summarized in:
Marmor, J.(1980). Overview: The multiple roots of homosexual behavior. In J. Marmor (Ed.), Homosexual behavior: A modern reappraisal. New York: Basic Books.
Some people can become conditioned (through chance association) to become sexually aroused by a previously neutral stimulus such as black boots. This is called a fetish. Examples of fetishes are feet, specific items of clothing, window-peeking, preference for partners MUCH older than oneself, etc. Fetishes can sometimes be removed with a conditioning-based procedure called
aversion therapy, in which fetish item/activities are paired with something aversive like shock or nausea...
Summary of research:
Brown, R. (1985). Social psychology, the second edition. New York: Free Press.
Representative samples of adult homosexuals and heterosexuals were compared, matching the two groups for lifestyles that might affect hormone levels and averaging multiple measurements of hormone levels (which fluctuate greatly over the course of days and even within a day). There was found to be no statistically significant difference in hormone levels between adult heterosexuals and homosexuals.
Parks, et al. (1974)
Also, a review of research on hormones of adult homosexuals found no differences overall (Gartrell, 1982). Others who have sytematically reviewed the research have reached the same conclusions-- no differences between homosexuals and heterosexuals in hormone levels or physiological functioning.
Masters & Johnson (1979), Meyer-Bahlburg (1977), Schiavi & White (1976), Tourney (1980), Birke (1981), Money (1980), Gartrell (1982)
Compared to our society, there is more adult homosexuality in societies that encourage prolonged exclusively same-sex friendships. An example of this would be in upper social classes in Great Britain upper classes, in which it is quite common for kids to attend same-sex boarding schools until age 17 or 18.
Compared to our society, there is more adult homosexuality in societies that encourage adolescent boys to have temporary homosexual relations with an older man. This occurs in a few Arab, African, & Polynesian cultures.
Storms (1981)
I've directly observed this to be true as well...
Bailey, et al. (2000) found that among Australian twins in a genetic study, childhood gender nonconformity was significantly heritable for both men and women. However, neither sexual orientation nor gender identity were significantly heritable.
Bailey, J. M., Dunne, M. P., & Martin, N. G. (2000). Genetic and environmental influences on sexual orientation and its correlates in an Australian twin sample. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 524-536
