Homosexuality is a very old practice, which is still a reality in today’s world. Some countries have even taken the step of legalizing it as marriage while others criminalize it. Other countries prefer not to say anything on the topic. Its existence pushes us to ask ourselves a few questions:
What is
homosexuality? Is it inborn or acquired (are homosexual oriented people born
like that or do they become homosexuals)? Is it possible to change one’s
orientation from homosexuality to heterosexuality? What is the aim of
homosexual activity? Is homosexuality morally good or bad? Are there
consequences of a homosexual activity? What attitude should we have towards
homosexual oriented people?
What is
homosexuality?
Every human
being is a sexual being: we are born male or female. The physical, biological
and psychological aspects of a male are different from those of a woman. This
is obvious. Among the differences, we can note that the sexual organs of a male
human being are different from the ones of a female human being. These sexual
organs are also called reproductive organs because they play a very important
role in the reproductive activity of human beings.
When a human
being becomes mature, he feels the need to exercise his sexual activities: the
sexual activity is in the sense of a man with a woman or a woman with a man. In
most societies and religions, sexual intercourse is not allowed before and
outside marriage. Therefore, the man and the woman are expected to officially
get married in order to have sexual intercourse which in itself leads to
reproduction or procreation as the ultimate scope of the union.
At times there
are people who are sexually attracted to both sexes. These are called
bisexuals. In other cases, there are people who are sexually attracted to
another person of the same sex what we normally term homosexuality: a man
sexually attracted to another man, and a woman sexually attracted to another
woman.
Homosexuality is
a sexual orientation in the same way as heterosexuality: when someone is
sexually attracted by a person of the opposite sex. Some homosexual oriented
people are active, others are not, just as for heterosexual oriented people.
Is it inborn or
acquired, learnt?
What l have
mentioned above leads us to ask the question over homosexuality: is it inborn
or acquired? In other words: are there people who are born homosexuals or is it
something which is acquired? Do some people become homosexual?
It is not easy
to answer this question. There are two positions: those who say that it is
inborn and those who say that it is acquired.
Some people claim that they were born homosexuals because they have never felt any attraction to the opposite sex. They say it’s not a free choice, but they are born like that, as one is born white or black without any choice on his behalf. Some think even that it is linked to the biological, physiological and neurological functions in them. There would be some gene or hormones or nerves responsible of this orientation. That’s why they have never been attracted to persons of the opposite sex. If they are responsible of the behavior which results from their attraction to the same sex, they don’t feel responsible of the attraction which doesn’t depend on them.
But the fact
that one has never been attracted to the opposite sex is not enough to affirm
that he was born homosexual. Sexual attraction comes with age. If one becomes
homosexual in his childhood, it is later on that he will feel that attraction.
On the other
hand, there is nothing to prove that homosexuality is not inborn. Maybe later
on science will be able to prove that it can be inborn. Even then, we cannot
exclude the possibility that it may also be acquired.
In the case it
would be inborn for some people, it could be considered as a “mistake” of
nature. At times nature can have failures, for instance when a woman gives
birth to a monster, which is possible.
For the time
being, there is no proof that homosexuality is inborn though some people claim
that it is. At the biological point of view, there is no gene or hormone or
nerve responsible of homosexuality. Should we for instance make a biological
test with scientific instruments to compare a heterosexual oriented person and
a homosexual oriented person, we would find no difference in the genes,
hormones and nerves. Therefore, the problem is neither genetic nor hormonal or
neurological.
It is a
different story when it comes to a hermaphrodite: it can be discovered in him a
gene responsible of his hermaphrodite state, but it is not transmissible: a
hermaphrodite will not give birth to another hermaphrodite.
How does one
become homosexual?
If homosexuality
is not inborn but is acquired, then the question is: how does one become
homosexual? There are many possibilities.
There are
factors which can play an important role in becoming homosexual of some people:
- The lack of sexual identity in a
person. This can be caused by some aspects which can be found in the childhood
of the person, depending on how he has been treated by the parents or his
educators.
- A hyper-protective attitude from
the parents.
- An exaggerated authoritarian
attitude from the father can influence the boy to become homosexual.
- A non-resolved conflict between
the father and the son or the mother and the daughter can result in the son/daughter
becoming homosexual.
- A prolonged absence of the father
from the family. The son has no opportunity to identify himself to the
masculine figure and so develop a feminine identity.
- Some become homosexuals because
of some kinds of disappointment in life. Thus one can meet someone who was
heterosexual, married but who abandon the relationship in order to be united to
a person of the same sex.
- The influence of the milieu or
the place, like nowadays the influence is greater in Western countries, with an
easy access to movies, internet, clubs etc on the topic.
- Money and some other material
advantages or favours.
- The practical experience of a
homosexual act.
- There might be much more reasons
why people become homosexuals.
- It has been noted that while
listening to the stories of homosexual people, there is always something
especially in their childhood: divorce, authoritarian father, etc. This doesn’t
apply to those who become homosexual at adult age.
Can a homosexual become heterosexual?
The question can
be asked differently: Is it possible to change one’s orientation from
homosexuality to heterosexuality?
If homosexuality
is not inborn but acquired, we can think that it is possible for a homosexual
to recover his heterosexual orientation. For this, an appropriate counselling
by specialized psychotherapists should be necessary.
Unfortunately,
nowadays, many psychotherapists, especially those who are somehow anticlerical
or antichurch tend to rather help their patient of homosexual orientation to
accept their situation and be at ease with it, since one cannot change what
they consider to be natural.
Psychologists of
Christian faith try to help their patient to be aware of the possible origin of
it and to recover again the heterosexual orientation in them. In some cases,
they succeed, and in others do not because the person/patient is not to be forced,
but let free to choose his life.
What is the aim of a homosexual activity?
As l said at the
beginning that in many societies and religions sexual intercourse is allowed
only to married people of opposite sex and it is associated with the intention
of procreation though it can be accomplished without the aspect of procreation.
The aspect of pleasure is part of it. People can seek pleasure in this activity
though pleasure is not the main aim of it. Then there is another aspect in it:
complementarity. A man alone feels lonely and incomplete. The same for a woman,
a heterosexual relationship fosters or enhances the realization of a certain
complementarity.
In brief, we can
identify three reasons for a heterosexual relationship: procreation,
complementarity and pleasure. Above all these three aspects there should be
love which is at the origin of a marriage.
In a homosexual
relationship, the first two aspects are absent. It is only pleasure which
remains. In general, people who engage in homosexual activities are looking for
the pleasure which they experience during that act. Is there love in homosexual
couples?
Is homosexuality morally good or bad?
Since l am
witting in the context of moral philosophy, it is quite normal to ask the
question about the morality of homosexual activity. Here we need to be specific
that we are not judging the homosexual orientation in itself; we are not
judging homosexual oriented people since many are not responsible of it and
their freedom has not been engaged and most might have found themselves
homosexuals. We will judge the homosexual activity because it engages free will
of those who practice it, a part from children who are somehow pulled in
without their full free will.
Some
philosophers spoke of it. Taking example of Plato and Aristotle, we shall apply
some moral principles to the situation of homosexual activity.
Plato has spoke
of homosexuality in various books and some scholars say that his position was
not clear at the beginning. But in his later thoughts we get the idea that
Plato rejected homosexuality. For him, the pleasure is natural when it is in a
heterosexual relationship; he condemns homosexuality by stating that all forms
of sexual conduct outside heterosexual marriage are shameful, wrongful and
harmful.
In Book VII of
the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses the topic of homosexuality, in
various moments he considers it as something natural but against nature and
another time he considers it as a morbid state and a kind of bestiality.
In Judaism and
Christianity, it is an abomination and therefore a sin: (Leviticus 18,22 ;
20,13 ; Rm 1,26-27). In Christianity, apart from the aspect of pleasure, every
sexual activity should be open to procreation. This aspect is impossible in a
homosexual relationship because it somehow refuses/not oriented towards
procreation. Hence a contradiction when some of them ask for the right to adopt
children, which is unjust toward those children who will grow up without a
parent of the missing sex… A child need both!
The practice of
homosexual activity contradicts the principle of sufficient reason which
affirms that there is a reason to everything and why something is the way it
is, not otherwise. There is a reason why God or nature made human beings male
and female. There is a reason why their sexual organs are different in the way
they are made. Then it is not normal for instance to perform sexual intercourse
in the nostrils.
We can also
confront homosexuality to the categorical imperative of Kant: “So act that the
maxim of your will could always hold at the same time as a principle
establishing universal law”. Here we can ask ourselves: can we universalize
homosexuality, considering it as a value for everybody all the time? The answer
is clearly No.
We can confront
homosexual activity to the ideas of Hans Jonas who says we need to avoid the
destruction of humanity. Humanity has to exist. Should everybody be homosexual,
would humanity exist? ¡No!
At realm of
health, homosexuality is more dangerous than heterosexuality. It has been
proved for instance that among men, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases
are more easily spread among homosexuals (especially male), just because the
anus is not the natural place of the penis.
All these
elements show us that a homosexual activity is not morally good. Our
rationality should help us to see that it is not a good practice.
What attitude should we have toward
homosexual oriented people?
When one goes to
a psychotherapist, it is because he discovers there is a problem and is seeking
for help. Not to try to help him is not fair.
Some people
think that spiritual means can be used as well to help homosexuals become
heterosexual. We should not exclude these means since a human being is also a
spiritual being.
Towards
homosexual oriented people, we need and they need understanding. We should not
condemn them. We can let ourselves be inspired by Levinas who said that every
encounter is ethically meaningful, and so it is also for them: 'ethically
meaningful'. Their face reveals to us the face; the Epiphany. To use the
anthropology of St Thomas Aquinas, we can say they are created in the image of
God and they are 'image of God', therefore endowed with human dignity as any
human being. We need to love, to respect and to understand them. They are human
beings. Those who can be helped, let us help them.
From my class Notes of Social Ethics, 2014.
NSINGA., Robert.
