The effect of the promiscuy stereotype on opposn to gay rights - PMC

Contents:

• GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?
• THE FACT NO ONE LIK TO ADM: MANY GAY MEN ULD JT HAVE EASILY BEEN STRAIGHT
• WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT HOW GRDR IS AFFECTG GAY MEN’S MENTAL HEALTH
• THE PLACE OF PROMISCUY GAY CULTURE
• THE EFFECT OF THE PROMISCUY STEREOTYPE ON OPPOSN TO GAY RIGHTS
• THE HEALTH RISKS OF GAY SEX

GAY STEREOTYP: ARE THEY TE?

Although neher of our fantasi was fulfilled by the enunter, we end up havg an tertg nversatn about homosexualy, a topic the fellow was studyg graduate school, wh an obv personal vtment, and the topic of a paper I’d wrten my unrgraduate psychology class. For one thg, homosexualy shows a reasonably high herabily—if you are homosexual, and you have a tw brother, there is a very good chance he is homosexual as well. Another odd thg about homosexualy is the shape of homosexual men’s preferenc: Although gay men share women’s attractn to humans wh penis, that’s about as far as the siary go.

But studi by Michael Bailey, my own lleagu, and other rearchers repeatedly fd that homosexual men are most attracted to men their late teens and early twenti, and they don’t re much about stat, stead prrizg physil attractivens. All this suggts that the old “social learng” theori don’t apply well to homosexual preferenc—if so, gay guys would learn om media and the social environment what mak for an attractive man, and go after the same featur that women fd attractive.

THE FACT NO ONE LIK TO ADM: MANY GAY MEN ULD JT HAVE EASILY BEEN STRAIGHT

Homosexual men are famoly promiscuo, a fact that beme well-known wh the onset of AIDS, when studi of gay men who were HIV-posive revealed average numbers of partners the hundreds (and even though gay men who were HIV negative had much lower numbers, the average for them was still dramatilly higher than the average numbers for heterosexual men). 6% of the women were exclively homosexual, a much larger percentage—13% of men and 11% of women—had at least some sexual experience wh, or attractn toward, the same sex. Camper-Ciani and other rearchers have gathered some evince that relativ of homosexuals have more sexual partners, and more offsprg, than relativ of a parable sample of heterosexuals.

Two of the puzzlg featur of homosexualy make some sense if you nsir that sexualy is not simply a “one swch” mechanism, but a pose of a number of separate mental modul. Homosexual men are cled toward promiscuy, attracted to youth and good looks, and unrg about stat—hence many of the sexual swch homosexual men are set the same posn as they are heterosexual men—if gay guys were straight, their preferenc would lead them to pick fertile femal.

To plite matters further, rearchers like Lisa Diamond have reviewed a reasonable amount of evince that different explanatns will likely apply to male and female homosexuals, and bisexuals.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT HOW GRDR IS AFFECTG GAY MEN’S MENTAL HEALTH

15, 2006 — -- Gay activists often cricize media verage of gay pri paras, sayg, rrectly, that the media foc on the extreme, the more flamboyantly feme men and very mascule women.

Not all straight men are bad drsers, " he is rearch that suggts gay men do prefer certa profsns, like fashn, terr sign and hair lorg, and that lbians are more likely to prefer sports and the ary. Rearchers say 's bee lbians, on average, are attracted to more mascule occupatns, and gay men tend to prefer more feme is te that hostily toward gay people drove many away om some other profsns.

"Whether you work, you know, as an artist or a sger or a dancer, those are all really creative plac where gay people are embraced, " Krsley saidIncreasgly gay people are visible every profsn. And probably has to do wh the of sexual orientatn and early effects of hormon on the bra, " Bailey did a survey of profsnal dancers and found half the men were gay. You n tell far better than chance who's a gay man om jt listeng to him say four sentenc, " Bailey Bailey's help, "20/20" ran a tt 2004 to see if people uld tell who was gay and who was straight.

THE PLACE OF PROMISCUY GAY CULTURE

The man who most people thought was straight was actually people do thk that gay men are more promiscuo than straight men, and fact, Bailey said, gay men do have more sex partners. When I was young, I was told the whole world was divid to heterosexual men and heterosexual women, bar a small number of unfortunate ‘homosexuals’ of both genrs and possibly an even smaller number a third tegory, ‘bisexuals’, who ‘swung both ways’; pl, fally, a ty band of wretched creatur who were physilly not que one thg or the other. Ksey diststed btal tegorisatn but, wishg to unt, nstcted what me close to a slidg sle ntag seven gradatns between exclive heterosexualy and exclive homosexualy.

He found that almost half his male terviewe had reacted sexually to both genrs; more than a third had had a homosexual enunter; and more than one ten reported roughly equally strong sexual rpons to both men and women. All all, I’ve probably slept wh as many straight men as self–intifyg gay or bisexual on: I doubt most were lyg, and some s have reason to know they weren’t. In what pass for the gay ‘muny’, there’s somethg of a taboo about admtg, even to ourselv, that que a few of (not me) uld, wh a ltle axg and self-disciple, be ‘straight’.

2, 2005 One night last May, a handful of New York Cy's bt-known gay journalists, artists and amics lled together some iends to bemoan what they viewed as a backlash agast the sexual practic of homosexuals. And they plaed about new books takg aim at what remas, even the AIDS era, a central feature of gay urban life: sex clubs, bathho and weekend-long dg parti where men may have terurse wh a dozen partners a night. While ath rat have been clg, studi show that men who have sex wh men still acunt for the majory of AIDS s, and that a young gay man has as much as a 50 percent chance of acquirg HIV by middle age.

THE EFFECT OF THE PROMISCUY STEREOTYPE ON OPPOSN TO GAY RIGHTS

As some homosexuals prs for same-sex marriage, adoptn and other forms of societal acceptance, welg Print Clton's addrs this month to a gay and lbian civil rights group (the first by a stg print), others prott assiatn.

On one si are those like Kramer, who are beechg homosexuals to adopt a culture rooted as much art, lerature and relatnships as "what's between our legs and what we do wh . " On the other are those like Thomas and Michael Warner, an English profsor at Rutgers Universy and a founr of Sex Panic, who argue that promiscuo sex is the sence of gay liberatn, and that any attempt to fight AIDS by changg the culture is doomed. "We want to resert sexual liberatn back our movement, " said Tony Valenzuela, an actor gay pornographic films who anized Sex Panic's first natnal nference, held San Diego this month.

THE HEALTH RISKS OF GAY SEX

Seattle Sex Survey [SSS] (Heterosexual Men & Women)Urban Men’s Health Study [UMHS] (MSM)Seattle MSM RDD [SEA] (MSM)Years2003–20041996–19982003 & 2006Eligibily creriaAge 18–39Seattle rintsPrent analysis rtricted to those who reported exclively heterosexual partnershipsAge 18 or olrNew York Cy, Chigo, San Francis, or Los Angel rintsSame-sex behavr sce age 14 or self-intified as gay or bisexualAge 18 or olrSeattle rintsSame-sex behavr sce age 14Sample sizeN=1, 194 (Heterosexuals, n=926)N=2, 881 (Age<40, n=1, 621)N=800 (Age<40, n=342)Rponse rate24%not reported46% (2003) & 22% (2006)Cooperatn rate46%78%97% (2003) & 87% (2006)Partner-specific qutnsAsked about up to 5 most recent partners (vagal, oral, or anal sex)Asked about up to 4 most recent male partners the past year (any kd of sex)Asked about up to 3 most recent male anal sex partners the past yearThe SSS and the two SEA RDDs were nducted the mid-2000s, while the UMHS, which enrolled MSM om 4 U.

Perhaps the separatn of social and sexual works observed among many MSM – a phenomenon that is at least partially ndned by factors such as laws, culture, and attus toward homosexualy – plays a cril role fosterg the staed HIV/STI epimics this populatn. Many health re and mental health anizatns foced on the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr muny also offer substance e treatment or may be able to provi rmatn about lol rourc. Jt as some heterosexuals still believe (rrectly) that homosexualy is “abnormal, ” some heterosexuals and homosexuals feel the same way about bisexualy (also rrectly).

As many heterosexuals began celebratg sex for pleasure (as distct om procreatn) durg the so-lled Sexual Revolutn of the 1960s and 1970s, homosexuals began celebratg their own sexualy—and fightg prejudice and discrimatn agast them.