This article treats some salient points about homosexuality, based on recent research on the topic by the American Psychological Association. It is important to know the facts and the latest research indications regarding an important topic, so close to so many people, and yet so controversial.
Sexual orientation is an enduring emotional, romantic, sexual or affectional attraction to another person. It is easily distinguished from other components of sexuality including biological sex, gender identity (sense of being male or female) and the social gender role. Sexual orientation exists along a continuum that ranges from exclusive homosexuality to exclusive heterosexuality, and includes various forms of bisexuality.
Persons with a homosexual orientation are sometimes referred to as gay (both men and women) or lesbian (women only). Sexual orientation is different from sexual behaviour; the former refers to feelings and self-concept. Persons may or may not express their sexual orientation in their behaviours.
There are numerous theories about the origins of a person's sexual orientation. Most scientists today agree that sexual orientation is most likely the result of a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors. Usually, sexual orientation is shaped at an early age. Considerable recent evidence suggests also that biology, including genetic or inborn hormonal factors, play a significant role in a person's sexuality.
Some people believe that sexual orientation is a choice. Sexual orientation emerges for most people in early adolescence without any prior sexual experience. Although we can choose whether to act on our feelings, psychologists do not consider sexual orientation to be a conscious choice that can be voluntarily changed.
Even though most homosexuals live successful, happy lives, some gay people may seek to change their sexual orientation through therapy, sometimes pressured by the influence of family members or religious groups to try and do so. The reality is that it does not require treatment and is not changeable.
Moreover, not all gay people who seek therapy want to change their sexual orientation. They may seek psychological help with the coming out process or for strategies to deal with prejudice, but most seek therapy for the same life issues as straight people do.
Some therapists who undertake so-called 'conversion therapy' report that they have been able to change their clients' sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. Close scrutiny of these reports, however, shows several factors that cast doubt on their claims. For example, claims mostly come from organisations with an ideological agenda against homosexuality, and often, the claims are poorly documented. For example, treatment outcome is not followed and reported over time as would be the standard to test the validity of any mental health intervention.
The American Psychological Association (APA) is concerned about such therapies and their potential harm to patients. In 1997, the APA reaffirmed psychology's opposition to homophobia in treatment. Any person who enters into therapy to deal with issues of sexual orientation has a right to expect that such therapy would take place in a professionally neutral environment absent of any social bias.
There is also confusion as to whether homosexuality is a mental illness. Psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals agree that homosexuality is not an illness, a mental disorder or an emotional problem.
Over 35 years of objective, well-designed scientific research has shown that homosexuality, in and of itself, is not associated with mental disorders or emotional or social problems. Homosexuality was once thought to be a mental illness because there was biased information.
In the past, the studies of gay people involved only those in therapy, thus biasing the resulting conclusions. The situation drastically changed when researchers examined data about gay people who were not in therapy. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association confirmed the importance of new, better designed research and removed homosexuality from the official manual that lists mental and emotional disorders (DSM).
Maybe the most controversial topic regards that of parenting. Studies in the US up to 2002, comparing groups of children raised by homosexual and by heterosexual parents, find no developmental differences between the two groups of children in four critical areas: their intelligence, psychological adjustment, social adjustment, and popularity with friends.
It is also important to realise that a parent's sexual orientation does not dictate his or her children's. Home environments provided by gay and lesbian parents are as likely to support and enable children's psycho-social growth as those provided by heterosexual parents. However, it should be acknowledged that research on this topic is still very new and relatively scarce. Studies that follow lesbian and gay families over time are badly needed.
Many people question why some gay individuals tell people about their sexual orientation. This usually occurs because sharing that aspect of themselves with others is important to their mental health. The coming out process maybe difficult for some gay people, but easier for others.
Often gay people feel afraid, different, and alone when they first realise that their sexual orientation is different from the community norm. This is particularly true for people becoming aware of their gay orientation as a child or adolescent, which is not uncommon. And, depending on their families and where they live, they may have to struggle against prejudice and misinformation about homosexuality.
Children and adolescents may be particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of bias and stereotypes. Gay and bisexual people may have to face social rejection, unemployment, and even harassment at schools and places of work, if their orientation becomes known.
Studies done in California in the mid 1990s showed that nearly half of all participants admitted to some form of anti-gay aggression, from name-calling to physical violence. This is indeed a worrying reality. Most negative attitudes towards gay people as a group are prejudices that are not grounded in actual experiences but are based on stereotypes and prejudice.
Protection against violence and discrimination is very important. Some nations are incorporating violence against an individual on the basis of his or her sexual orientation as a "hate crime".
Educating all people about sexual orientation and homosexuality is likely to diminish anti-gay prejudice. Accurate information about homosexuality is especially important to young people who are first discovering and seeking to understand their sexuality, whether homosexual, or heterosexual. Fears that access to such information will make more people gay have no validity. Information about homosexuality does not make someone gay or straight.
Rev Dr Galea is a professional psychologist