What if homosexuality could be treated -thoughts and questions on that.
What if sometime in the future homosexuality is found to be a genetic deficiency of some kind (which to most scientists that’s what it is) and can be cured as such?
Even if I have and always will consider homosexuals as people who deserve protection and respect for their own individuality, this doesn’t change the fact that their sexual orientation is a deviation from the norm, one that has caused the ire of most civilizations at one time or other and many of the major religions in the world are against it. I have also observed that most straight men consider this fate worse than death sometimes. What if this didn’t have to be?
I have to be honest here, this is what my own nightmare was growing up, that I might somehow belong to the “homos” rather than the “straights” I had always assumed I was part of. I was lucky enough to be straight. What would happen if I hadn’t been?
In a city nearby, in a well televised incident, a child was victimized growing up, when he realized that he had cravings for men, raped, then, after his parents drove him away, wound up in Athens, becoming a male prostitute because there were no other ways for him to survive (an effeminate boy, alone in a large metropolis) and eventually having a sex-changing operation. When I saw this on T.V. I felt ashamed that this would happen in the 21st century. A person is much more than his sexuality, and if this person had been different he would have had a different life. Even if I do believe that the best course of action, right now, is to support this child and allow him to be among his own, what if the whole reason why he had been subjected to this is taken away?
Think about that for a second. All this discrimination, terrorizing and brutalizing in the street or otherwise, is no more. I do believe it is wrong, as we are all people in the end, but what if it had no reason to exist in the first place?
Of course this can only happen if science can find an exact link between genetics and homosexuality. Even if it takes decades, I do believe that the exponential increase of knowledge we see in our own times, continued, will lead to a much greater knowledge of ourselves and how our brains operate. Therefore, we can’t exclude a breakthrough in our understanding of homosexuality, which will lead to a cure. If what I have read about the homosexuals is correct, a huge amount of them, at some point, just want a regular life with a wife a children, even if that would mean the greatest sacrifice of all for them, denying who they are. What if that could change? What if they actually did really crave their wife? There have been well publicized events of straight men having libido problems with their girlfriends, who actually had testosterone deficiency at some point. Curing that deficiency, cured their libido.
It isn’t as simple as that, in most cases, it never has been. Many people, the world over, have done research upon research for this matter and a lot of studies have shown inconclusive results. What may work on one person doesn’t work on another. This is exactly why a more concentrated effort is needed for us to be able to understand homosexuality as a deviation from the social norm, a difference which, even if miniscule, does lead to a very bad life (most of the time) for those afflicted by it. I do believe, however, that it will be worth it in the end. People are people, always have been and if a way exists for them to be better off in the future, they will take it, I believe.
A lot of people have suggested that homosexuality is psychologically oriented, that a super domineering mother subconsciously shows her son that “she’s the boss” and the son takes after his mother that way, as males tend to imitate the dominant one of his parents. This, however, isn’t always true. Even if it does exist, it must have some association with genetics, because even in the same family, brothers with a domineering mother aren’t all gays. Even worse for that scenario, in typical families with a “macho” father, out of 4 sons, 3 may be gays, even with “proper” upbringing, which wouldn’t ever create a gay in any way. Therefore, genetics should be considered as number one reason for homosexuality, with “domineering mother” and other factors which affect persons as they grow up, playing role. It goes without saying that being sexually assaulted at a small age, has been known to change one’s sexual orientation, through no fault of that person.
What is absolutely horrid is the realization of what life awaits a small child, growing up, when he or she realizes that they crave the same sex. It is so daunting for some of them, especially after realizing the fate of some who realized the same thing (prostitution, a life of being mis-treated for something they had no control over, the torture and pain inflicted on their family for what they felt as natural as breathing) that they kill themselves. In fact many teenage suicides can be attributed to the fact that those children found out they were gay and couldn’t cope with it, so they died by their own hand. Even if they may find solace with the only people who really understand them, (other gays), what if in the future there was a way for them to be straight? Wouldn’t they or their parents take it?
There are just so many things we don’t know, that it is really impossible to be able to paint a clear picture of this. It is up to science to dot the i’s and cross the t’s.
What is up to us is to establish whether that is moral. Even if those really affected by it, aka small children growing up knowing they should be part of the other sex but are not, are those who would want it most, even so, it is up to us to establish the reasons why this should be, or whether homosexuality should exist as it has for millennia.
I don’t think anyone should doubt that a big part of art and culture was created by homosexuals. People who, belonging to either both sexes or none of them went out of the norm and created works of art for all of the rest of us to visually and aurally explore and be amazed by. There are brilliant scientists among them and technicians too. Not all of them do drag shows in shady bars. They have a higher average pay from the rest of us, and (monetary speaking) greater chances for a higher income and a better life. Would a treatment for homosexuality destroy them utterly? Should it?
With all due respect to the homosexuals’ accomplishments, I believe that the children matter first. I am a firm believer of the parents’ choice as to what their children should behave like as they grow up. If homosexuality is found to be treatable AND the parents decide to have it treated, then it should be, allowing the child to lead a better and productive life than would otherwise be the case.
If the parents feel that the choice should be up to the child, that is fine. Allow the child to grow up and make his/her own choices. However, there should always be a choice for that adult, even if he/she becomes a homosexual at some point to be able to receive treatment and become straight if he/she so desires, at whatever point in their lives. This would not only be reasonable, it would also be justified morally. To have a proper family there has to be proper distinction between a man and a woman. Children need their father as well as their mother. They need their father to act like one as well as their mother to act like a mother. Anyone of them failing to stand up to his/her responsibilities would have dire effects on children. Therefore for a homosexual to be a parent, they would have to get this treatment, to become a decent dad or mom, without ever being haunted by anything else.
Where does that leave the gay community? Well, that leaves them those who despite all the choices offered to be anything else, decide to be gay. That right has to be respected and properly defended, I think, as it will be by those people that our own freedoms and tolerance is judged.
So, in a nutshell, if such a thing as treatment for homosexuality is found, a couple and their child in the future could go something like this…
1-In a pre-natal test, or one that is conducted shortly after birth, a child is found to have, say 40% chances of becoming a homosexual in later life. In this case parents have a choice of a) treating that deficiency or b) allowing the child to grow up and choose what he/she becomes in later life.
2-In adolescence the child (whose parents took the b option) can choose on his/her own who to be in later life. That would mean a) being able to have some treatment for his/her homosexuality or b) remaining homosexual as he/she considers that a very important part of his/her character.
3-Later on in life (at whatever stage after adolescence) those who chose 2b can have treatment if they want to have a husband/wife and family. I think it is fair to suggest that a family with children should only be composed of a man and a woman. Gay couples, no matter how loving they may be to one another can’t ever become a father and a mother. Those who do, can undertake the treatment, be rid of their homosexuality and start a family like all the rest of us may.
Some parting thoughts of mine,
-Homosexuality, no matter how people want to defend it, is a deviation from normal behavior. Our bodies were designed to attach to the different sex and only through particular points. Not all body cavities should be part of sexual desire, I think.
-I understand that some will call me a bigot and that I hide behind the eventual progress of science to attack homosexuals. I don’t. I try to defend them. I think that the best way to do that is to make people realize that for now, homosexuals have no choice but to be who they are. What you have read above are thoughts as to what would happen if they had those choices.
-My first and foremost concern are the children. Innocent children, who learn, growing up, that some random genetic factor or some family acquired dysfunction or even worse a pedophile, led them to become gays. I hate to see even one of them shooting themselves. I hope that in the future a permanent solution can be found to their plight.
-There has been a reasoning that a society without homosexuals would have no creative spark, no arts growing and flowing, no finesse in all the things that make life beautiful. I beg to differ. A lot of what gays used to do can be picked up by women who are an integral part of society right now. Even more so, I think this point is mute. A person should be their work, their thoughts, their evolution to a better self. Not his or her sexuality. This means that I believe that a great scientist or artist would be who they are irrespective of what the genetic dice had in store for him or her. Taking out of the equation homosexuality doesn’t make them any less an artist or a scientist. It should be only by their consent however.
-A treatment for homosexuality might be abused by homophobic regimes and societies that would screen people for homosexuality and forcibly treat those who have those tendencies. That is always a danger, but even if it does exist, it shouldn’t detract us the reason we must be doing this: saving as many young children as we can from a life that for most of them would lead to very sad consequences, through no fault of their own.
-Those who choose to remain homosexuals, if they have been given a choice not to, should definitely remain so, be respected for their choices and protected for them. A society, in which homosexuals feel secure, usually thrives and has an art and cultural explosion. The homosexuals are the ones who will help the proper authorities identify isolate and put in jail the pedophiles among them who ruin children’s lives and sap them off the will to live.
-I do believe that a society in which homosexuality is treatable would have less “homophobic” incidents with homosexuals finally secure in their sexuality (who they are is who they have chosen to be-not what their sexuality imposed upon them) and those who actually do assault them, being treated to the harshest sentencing. We are all people, after all. We are all the same. We must always remember that.
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Originally Posted by Knight of Heaven
