Myth: Lbian, gay and bisexual people n be intified by certa mannerisms or physil characteristics. People who are lbian, gay or bisexual e as many different shap, lors and siz as do people who are heterosexual.
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UNTTHS AND FACTS ABOUT PEOPLE WHO ARE GAY, LBIAN, OR BISEXUAL
Untth: Beg Gay, Lbian, or Bisexual is a matter of nsc choice. Fact: Beg Gay, Lbian or Bisexual is a plex procs that is termed at an early age. It is more than wh whom one has sex and is fed by emotns, self-ncept, and social inty. * facts about being gay *
The term gay is equently ed as a synonym for homosexual; female homosexualy is often referred to as different tim and different cultur, homosexual behavur has been varly approved of, tolerated, punished, and banned. Homosexualy was not unmon ancient Greece and Rome, and the relatnships between adult and adolcent mal particular have bee a chief foc of Wtern classicists recent years. Others—om factns wh mastream Prottantism to anizatns of Reform rabbis—have advoted, on theologil as well as social grounds, the full acceptance of homosexuals and their relatnships.
Morn velopments Attus toward homosexualy are generally flux, partially as a rult of creased polil activism (see gay rights movement) and efforts by homosexuals to be seen not as aberrant personali but as differg om “normal” dividuals only their sexual orientatn. The nflictg views of homosexualy—as a variant but normal human sexual behavur on one hand, and as psychologilly viant behavur on the other—rema prent most societi the 21st century, but they have been largely rolved ( the profsnal sense) most veloped untri. The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn, for example, classified “ego-syntonic homosexualy” (the ndn of a person ntent wh his or her homosexualy) as a mental illns 1973.
Nohels, some relig groups ntue to emphasize reparative therapy the attempt to “cure” homosexualy through prayer, unselg, and behavur modifitn.
Disver all facts and statistics on Homosexualy (gays and lbians) the U.S. on ! * facts about being gay *
Selected theori of homosexualy Psychologists the 19th and 20th centuri, most of whom classified homosexualy as a form of mental illns, veloped a variety of theori on s orig.
It is likely that many stanc of homosexualy rult om a batn of born or nstutnal factors and environmental or social fluenc. Together wh a growg acceptance of homosexualy as a mon exprsn of human sexualy, long-standg beliefs about homosexuals had begun to lose crence.
Read CNN’s Fast Facts on lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer or qutng ton the Uned Stat, and learn more about their stggle for equal rights. * facts about being gay *
The stereotyp of male homosexuals as weak and effemate and lbians as mascule and aggrsive, which were wispread the Wt as recently as the 1950s and early ’60s, have largely been disrd.
The Ksey report of 1948, for example, found that 30 percent of adult Amerin mal among Ksey’s subjects had engaged some homosexual activy and that 10 percent reported that their sexual practice had been exclively homosexual for a perd of at least three years between the ag of 16 and 55. A range of more recent surveys, ncerng predomantly homosexual behavur as well as same-genr sexual ntact adulthood, have yield rults that are both higher and lower than those intified by Ksey.