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Homosexuality

Anti-gay-marriage protest march in Paris, 2013
Anti-gay-marriage protest march in Paris, 2013 // via Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

Homosexuality or homosexualism[1] is a unnatural sexual attraction or sexual behavior towards members of the same sex.

Homosexuality is against the natural instinct of procreation and contradicts social institutions, including the institution of family and marriage, understood as a union between a man and a woman[2].

Common English terms for homosexual people are lesbian for females and gay for males.

The problem of scientific research on homosexuality

A common theory is that homosexual attraction or behavior can arise as a result of social factors and upbringing. All attempts to find any scientific biological explanation for homosexuality (for example, to identify a genetic influence) have not been successful.[3]

Representatives of the LGBT movement (recognized as extremist in Russia) have repeatedly tried to find a scientific justification for depathologizing homosexuality and recognizing it as one of the normal manifestations of sexuality. However, as the Oxford Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry notes, if in some areas, such as the genetics of schizophrenia, psychiatry "has striven to be as scientific as possible", then in matters related to homosexuality, psychiatry behaved like "a handmaiden of its cultural and political masters."[4].

In fact, all decisions to depathologize and “normalize” homosexuality were made not on the basis of scientific data, but under the influence of political lobbying from the LGBT movement. For example, in 1973-74, under the gross influence of gay activists (including a gay psychiatrist) the American Psychiatric Association decided to no longer consider homosexuality a mental illness.[5]. Subsequently, both the Psychiatric and Psychological associations of the United States, having come under the direct financial influence of LGBT organizations and being in affiliated relations with the LGBT movement, gradually began to increasingly advocate for the “normality” of homosexuality.

As one of the arguments for the alleged "naturalness" of human homosexuality, LGBT representatives have repeatedly drawn attention to homosexual activity among animals. However, professional ethologists (notably Frank Beach) note that "homosexual activity among animals was usually an expression of the dominant or submissive role of that particular individual animal vis-à-vis another", and it cannot prove that homosexuality is “biologically normal.”[6]

Homosexuality from the point of view of religion

From the point of view of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, homosexuality is a vicious passion, one of the most serious sins[2]. In Christianity, homosexuality is considered a mortal sin, correlates with sexual immorality and depravity, for which the biblical cities Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed (hence the term "sodomy").

Some marginal small denominations, usually closely associated with the LGBT movement, are trying to whitewash homosexuality by distorting the principles enshrined in The Holy Scriptures of the religions to which these denominations refer themselves, in fact being new religious movements.

In Buddhism, homosexuality is viewed as sexual promiscuity and the misuse of one's own body parts.

The history of attitudes towards homosexuality

Homosexual relations in various forms existed in various ancient societies, including Jewish, Persian, Celtic, Greek, and American Indian. However, such relationships were often condemned and not widely spread. But sodomy was quite common in Ancient Rome where it came from Ancient Greece in the "most disgusting form."[7] In the Middle Ages, homosexual relations began to be criminalized. In modern era, the opinion began to spread that homosexuality is a disease,[2] an "unhealthy perversion of sexual feeling." At the end of the XIX century, authors of the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary noted that "at present, sodomy is especially widespread in the East, where it is practiced openly, but also exists in civilized countries of Europe and America, sometimes assuming the character of a special type of prostitution/"[7]

In the second half of the 20th century in the countries of the Western world, with the emergence of homosexual communities with their own subculture, the LGBT movement began to form. Eventually it became a significant political force. LGBT lobbyists succeeded in decriminalizing and depathologizing homosexuality and recognizing it by Western institutions as one of the "norms" of human sexuality, although there were no scientific grounds for such decisions.[2] Under the influence of gay propaganda in the United States at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, the number of homosexuals doubled.[8].

The processes of "normalization" of homosexuality in Western countries, accompanied by corresponding legislative changes, often did not take into account the opinion of the population of these countries. For example, in 2013, hundreds of thousands of French people took to the streets of Paris, protesting against the legalization of same-sex marriage and adoption of children by same-sex couples,[9] but the authorities still passed the relevant laws.[10]

As part of the protection against such degenerative processes, a law was passed in Russia in 2013 prohibiting the propaganda of homosexuality, and in 2023 the LGBT movement was recognized as an extremist organization, its activities were banned.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Гомосексуализм // Большая психологическая энциклопедия: самое полное современное издание : более 5000 психологических терминов и понятий / А. Б. Альмуханова и др. — М.: Эксмо, 2007. — 544 с. ISBN 978-5-699-20617-9
  2. ↑ 2,0 2,1 2,2 2,3 Гомосексуальность / Кон И. С. // Гермафродит — Григорьев. — М. : Большая российская энциклопедия, 2007. — С. 390. — (Большая российская энциклопедия : [в 35 т.]/ гл. ред. Ю. С. Осипов ; 2004—2017, т. 7). — ISBN 978-5-85270-337-8.
  3. ↑ Sexuality // New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. — Thomson Gale, 2005. — P. 2208. «all of these [biological] theories have limitations, some more serious than others», «there generally has been a failure to replicate the findings», «So far there are too many variables involved to come up with any definitive answers».
  4. ↑ Homosexuality, Gender Identity Disorder, and Psychiatry // A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry. — Oxford University Press, 2005. — P. 127.

    "In some areas, psychiatry has striven to be as scientific as possible, in studying the genetics of schizophrenia or the neurotransmitters involved in depression. In other areas, however, the discipline has proven very much a handmaiden of its cultural and political masters. Sexual behavior is one such area, and psychiatry’s tendency to drift with the prevailing winds is seen no more clearly than in the area of homosexuality."

  5. ↑ Homosexuality, Gender Identity Disorder, and Psychiatry // A Historical Dictionary of Psychiatry. — Oxford University Press, 2005. — P. 131.
  6. ↑ Sexuality // New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. — Thomson Gale, 2005. — P. 2207
  7. ↑ 7,0 7,1 Кузьмин-Караваев В. Д. Мужеложство // Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона : в 86 т. (82 т. и 4 доп.). — СПб., 1890—1907.
  8. ↑ Ученые: число геев в США увеличилось в два раза за последние 25 лет // РИА Новости, 1 июня 2016
  9. ↑ «Это не последняя битва». В Париже сотни тысяч демонстрантов протестовали против легализации однополых браков // Газета.ру, 25 марта 2013
  10. ↑ Закон об однополых браках вступил в силу во Франции // РИА Новости, 18 мая 2013
  11. ↑ Верховный суд запретил в России «международное движение ЛГБТ». Коммерсантъ (30 ноября 2023). Дата обращения: 1 декабря 2023.

Bibliography

  • Гомосексуализм // Православная энциклопедия. — М., 2006. — Т. XII : «Гомельская и Жлобинская епархия — Григорий Пакуриан». — С. 42—44. — 752 с. — 39 000 экз. — ISBN 5-89572-017-X.

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