I think the some odd % of the population that is gay serves some purpose in nature. Could be a social purpose, or a physical purpose, but something.
I think that's a simplistic wat to try and justify a person's sexuality. Personly i don't get why things can't just be. "Im a Lesbian" because i am not because i serve a purpose in the "greater good" sort of scenario. I think people try to justify it that way so it can seem like it was part of "god's plan" that thay are gay, not because thats who they are.
Sexuality is not something that needs to be justified. It exists, and that's that. A case could be made that lesbians and gay men are less likely to procreate, and are therefore free to do all sorts of things that benefit a wider circle of people than their families. Given the world's population, the fact that some people don't procreate may also be seen as a good thing.
I don't believe in God. I just think gays somehow are necessary to have a thriving population and maybe a good social one, could have something to do with mentallity also, or it might be nothing at all. I wish it would just be "I am Gay". I don't know any gay guys, none. I only know one lesbian. At my school a guy would get the crap beat out of him for saying hes gay so I understand why nobody say anything. Sexuality is such a weird thing I can't really discuss it that well. I can't tell you anything about it but I can tell you whats not true about it. I couldn't care less about Christianity and justifing things, its just a thought I had. For the most part I'm just upset you seem to be offended with my idea, even though it has no basis and no sociological purpose, even though my previous statements may seem a little contradictory to my intentions (which is to have a friendly discussion). I just wish I knew and was friends with some homosexuals.
i'm not offended by your idea. i think it's an interesting q. i agree with the other posters in saying that we just are the way we are and there's no need or obligation to have to justify it to anyone else. but i'm still curious about why i am the way i am, and i think you are about the way you are, too, which is a good thing. so there's no harm in thinking about this or asking questions. i believe that gay ppl do serve a 'purpose' (purpose might not be the best word b/c of the religious connotations) but whether or not it's in some grand plan of god's, i don't know. i don't believe in a one-god world but i do believe in reincarnation. my own idea is that we indirectly choose to be gay be4 we are born as part of our intention in reincarnating here in the way we have: rich or poor; white, brown, yellow or black; girl or boy; gay or straight etc. quite often it is to experience existense as something 'other' than what we've ever been be4 through sexual identity/gender inversion and reversal which also allow others, such as friends and family, to accept and tolerate difference, or try to. the universe is always looking for ways to expand its vast record of subjective experiences and in ths regard we all serve as its agents, gay and straight. as far as the social purpose being gay might serve, well it used to mean until recently, that everyone who was gay didn't have children so could therefore devote much more of their time and energy to intellectual, artistic, cultural, sporting or career lives which became de facto offspring. many of the world's great artists and thinkers have been homosexual and instead of reproducing children they have left us great works: da vinci, michaelangelo, plato, for example were all homosexual. being gay also meant being on the fringes of society, and the consensus reality view of 'normality', so there developed a certain subversive style of aesthetics and humour ('camp') that someone like oscar wilde personified. i also believe that homsoexuality has a biological function too: whatever it is that makes us gay is something that nearly everyone is born with and this allows people to be attracted and relate to ppl of the same gender. even the most macho straight guy or feminine woman will possess some element of homosexuality otherwise he or she wouldn't be able to relate to the other macho straights and girlie glamour pusses. i think if you sat down and thought about it you could come up with a lot more 'purposes' like these...
The idea of not reproducing so being more able to work is really good. I wouldn't know that the word purpose had to do with religion. Thing is, there are gay in all species of mammals, not just humans. There are gay dogs, cats, monkeys, and so on. I wonder if there are homosexual amphibians and reptiles.
often too u find gay ppl are more involved in civic affairs and such, and in my opinion there's something civilising about having gay men around: not only do we wear gorgeous clothes and cook well, but we also arrange flowers beautifully! it's not a direct meaning but rather a semantic association: "god's divine purpose and plan" is a subject dear to many tub thumpers' heart. so i've been told. i used to think there were also gay trees. whatever, same sex attraction is evidenced widely throughout nature. it's only humans that kill and bash each other over it. btw green, i've noticed that u are a pretty broad minded guy which is a great thing but does it cause u to get a hard time at school? seems to me that schools are getting more and more conformist all the time...
This is a great thread! Some things have popped into my mind about the 'why we are gay.' For one, perhaps um say lesbians are lesbians so that we could be of some refuge or 'break' to so-called straight women from there relationships with men. In my experience, every girl my age that I know well (about 20) are somewhat, if not a lot, attracted to women. So while they go start families, lesbians do other work--labour, philosophy, art, etc., and then now and then the familied women come and visit the lesbians and have very feminine lesbian sex. Has anyone ever read The Vagina Monologues? There's a lesbian spoken about in that book that does that sort of thing. Because we are -different-, and, for example, much of the sexuality portrayed in the media doesn't appeal to us as much, we notice discrepancies in social beliefs, and can very easily become observers, which allows why many great philosophers and people with amazing ideas are gay.
A lot of people at my school hate gays, and many many use the word fag (in ignorance, so I ignore it, I hate that word, its probably the only cuss word that I don't like that people use today). Sad thing, I'm not really expresive at school. I'll tell you the truth actually. I don't talk to anybody except for my few friends. People ask me often why I am so quiet and in band I've been asked why I'm not friends with anybody in band. Also, I've never had a girlfriend (or boyfriend). I would hate to have somebody I know in real life come to this website and know who I am and tell anybody at my school, I would absolutely hate it. I didn't join the gay/straight alliance. As for people giving me trouble. I don't see people who would bug me in the morning (which is when people are in the worst mood anyway, or atleast I am). Zero hour and first period are band, and everybody is nice in there. I really don't care if somebody I have no respect for says something bad about me, or anything infact, because I don't respect them, and if you don't respond, nobody cares. People get picked on because the person picking on them can get a reaction from them, when I was little I would cry uncontrollably, but now I don't do anything (because I don't care about what they say). Another factor is I'm over 6 feet tall and do over 300 push ups a day and have a rep for a bad attitude from middle school. A kid talking about fighting me would probably be told that I would "go crazy on them". Not that I would, but middle school really sucked for me and I didn't have very good composure back then. People, and some of my friends from middle school think I am insane and would place me in some kind of serial killer catergory, which is not true of course. I haven't had any problems at school. I don't have any enemies and I haven't been insulted once this year.
you know, i had trouble thinking of famous lesbian thinkers and artists, apart from gertrude stein and alice toklas i couldn't think of any, oh and sappho of course, so i googled a site called 'famous gays and lesbians in history' or some such and found there are lots: http://www.youth.org/loco/PERSONProject/Resources/OrganizingResources/history.html
I think that in the past there was a ton more things done by women, and lesbians in particular (I'm talking the time of the greeks), but when the christians took over, they burned everything the women did or scratched out their names. Most of the imformation we have today of the pre dark age era was saved for us by some wise monks, inparticular italian monks, but some other monks too. Monks were mostly scholars who worked on music and spent alot of time in religion and study, but within them there were some sexist (being christians and all) who while they were recording the great events of the world for future generations (because it was the dark ages and not much paper was surviving) they could have discredited women by erasing what they did. I can't prove it, but it just has to have been there. People say women didn't do crap in history, which is complete bullshit, they did stuff, just nobody has in documents remembering it.
a lot of people think shakespeare was gay. Virgina Woolf certainly wasn't straight--she was polyamorous and I think incestuous as well. Absolutely, a lot of famous thinkers and idea-ists were homosexual.. I think this is because they don't fit into the same hole as everyone else, and no one expects that. Like, your parents don't say every few months, "So how is your sexuality? Where's it at? Do you like men or women?" You discover it all by yourself. So already you're coming from a different point of view than everyone, and when one thing doesn't make sense in a society, you start to question everything else... this invites deepthought and creativity.
