Withstanding all the research and work over the course of some 200 years, it can be said that same-sex sexual and romantic attractions, feelings, and behaviors are normal and positive variations of human sexuality.
But what do the people around the world have to say about "homosexuality" ?
In sub-Saharan Africa, at least nine-in-ten in Nigeria (98%), Senegal (96%), Ghana (96%), Uganda (96%) and Kenya (90%) believe homosexuality should not be accepted by society, whereas 97% in Jordan, 95% in Egypt, 94% in Tunisia, 93% in the Palestinian territories, 93% in Indonesia, 87% in Pakistan, 86% in Malaysia, 80% in Lebanon and 78% in Turkey denounce it with vehemence.
Many still believe it is an abomination born out of cultural and environmental influences, or the spoilage of frenzied adolescent experimentation or raging hormones or the whim of the demented and the deviants or similar gibberish.
There are many implausible reasons why people believe what they believe :
- The truth of the matter is that majority of population is “heterosexual”, and many people, in continuation of practice, deem tradition gender roles inviolable and beyond debate. There are places where the tolerance is practically zilch, like say, India or southern states of US. Intolerance is so pronounced that the terms like eunuch ( in India we have variations ) are, in their essence, scurrilous insults and curses meant to pejor.
- One man touching another or the other way around, to many, is repelling and out of the ordinary. Anything that is beyond normal finds little to no acceptance.
- The most consequential reason, I think is religious, the sacrosanct religious texts that are beyond reproach, condemn homosexuality beyond acceptability, even beyond mention sometimes.
Call it what you will, the truth is bitter and stark :
- Non-heterosexual youth often are subjected to harassment and violence; 45% of gay men and 20% of lesbians surveyed were victims of verbal and physical assaults in secondary school specifically because of their sexual orientation.
- Social discrimination and ostracization often puts them at risk to drop out of school and getting kicked out of their homes. They are more likely to :
- Suffer from substance abuse.
- Raped
- attempt suicide, be victimized .
- Youth who someday will self-identify as gay, lesbian, or bisexual are 2 to 4 times more likely to be threatened with a weapon at school.
There are more things that I can mention and seeing the statistics with my own eyes kinda sickens me beyond words. Mind you that stigmatization makes it hard for a more precise accounting, which by all means could be worse. All of this comes out as a consequence of stigmatization of gender nonconformity, stress, violence, lack of support etc. All these things can be avoided, if you and me choose to do away with the iniquitously erroneous notion that gay people are different for the heck of it.