All-the-while this minor hurdle has not withstood the wanting-reader’s eyes, as the discrimination against the zine has been well-documented in online media. The stories collected in the zine remind me very much of those in “The Full Spectrum,” an excellent book that holds a collection of coming-out stories. Sometimes religious, often thought-provoking, these stories always give new perspective to one’s own coming out situation (while it does “get better,” it could be worse!).
My life here recently has been pretty good… I’m over my gynecological exam, but I just cannot stop relapsing into a common cold. Bleh! I’m ready for a change in the weather…
Recently I’ve been thinking about the definition of sex. I volunteer for a local teen group and they always want to know what is and what isn’t considered sex. There’s totally no one answer! The Kinsey institute has looked at this and found not only that, but that our definition of sex changes with time. Take a look: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/13675.html
Defining sexual intercourse as only one act, that of penile-vaginal penetration means that other forms of sex - and all forms of sexual activity that gay couples perform - are not really sex at all. The problem is that sex is not simply one act due to the fact that it results in a, hopefully achieved, chemical reaction that involves several phases (one could look to either Kaplan's Three Phase or Masters and Johnson's Four-Phase Model). Excluding all other acts - oral sex, anal sex, tribadism, etc. means that all other persons simply cannot experience the same physiology as a heterosexual who engages in a specific act.
I’ve laid down some thought, too, here recently on biblical literalists. If you’re a biblical literalist, then: Leviticus says that two men lying together as a man lies with a woman is an abomination. Women are excluding from the comment, and therefore lesbians simply do not matter. The problem here is that fundamentalists tend to think that being gay no matter what your gender is wrong. But hey, the bible only speaks about men “lying” with other men as a man lies with a woman. If we are to take the bible literally, then we could say: “oh, well it only speaks to men” or “oh, sex isn’t the problem, it’s just lying with one another.”
When I think about a hypothetical cultural goal of writing a book capable of winning the support and acceptance of gays in America, it seems nearly impossible when the cornerstone of our culture proscribes these activities. How we reconcile these beliefs inside the church is a big question. Outside the church scientific empirical literature will no doubt play a large role.
In The Full Spectrum one individual mentions how the Dali Lama was asked in front of a room full of rural, mid-west Americans whether being gay was wrong. Known for his ken on current scientific data, stated that the question was laughable, which I find really interesting! Here’s this prominent figure who takes from ancient writings and tradition and whose opinion is really valued among our culture.
Two mention two recent scientific studies briefly, famous neuroscientist and researcher Simon LeVay wrote: “Interestingly, so far there has been more evidence that early androgens might play a role in homosexuality in women than in men. There are recent reports of three previously unsuspected body markers that seem to reflect fetal androgen in humans. The markers are quite varied, involving the ears (the production of tiny sounds by the cochlea), the eyes (eye-blink reflexes), and the fingers (the pattern of relative finger lengths). Yet in each case, there is a sex difference in function or structure, and in each case lesbians display characteristics that are more male-like compared with heterosexual women. These same putative somatic markers of early androgen have provided conflicting results when comparing homosexual and heterosexual men. The conflicting results in men suggest that some boys may turn out homosexual as a result of lower-than normal fetal androgen, some may result from higher-than normal levels, and some may turn out homosexual for reasons having nothing to do with androgens.” (See http://www.libertyeducationforum.org/IsItaChoiceTheScienceofSexualOrientation.htm).
Additionally, I’ve read that as a mother's womb that has male children in it acclimates to having testosterone in the body. The likelihood of having a male child, though, increases. This demonstrates a biological link between sexual orientation and prenatal exposure to hormones - one point in favor of the "it's not a choice" assertion.
My parents still don’t believe in the whole “it’s not really a choice” notion of sexual orientation. I can show them studies, but they will respond with other studies! It’s funny though, because I point out that their studies are biased in some way: through funding, opinions of the authors, etc. There was one study, a meta-analysis done looking at whether girls or boys perform better at science and math (a meta-analysis statistically examines a set of studies on the same topic to determine overriding themes in the numbers or if a general consensus exists). The study found that if men were conducting the study, the outcome of the study would likely favor men. If women conducted the study, the study would likely favor women. The takeaway message is that bias exists at some level in each and every study done in the scientific community – even if we’re studying plant growth on miracle-grow in a bubble-environment. Something can always shake the pot! “Proven” is never a word used in the scientific community, so we should just take an assimilation of results in different studies and can mount an argument for or against a perspective on scientific phenomena.
Well folks, that's all for now! Check back with you soon to update you on my love life (oh yeah!). <3 Michelle
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